+ About Atlas

id : 20220903011037
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/readme

About Atlas

An Atlas is a "map of maps".

The Atlas folder contains your Maps of Content (MOCs).

You'll usually navigate to them using your Home note, but keeping them in a folder away from your ever-growing note collection allows you to maintain them more easily as well as quickly navigate between them using the sidebar.

These notes are so important, they truly deserve their own folder.

+ About Cards

id : 20220923162426
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/readme

The cards folder is one of my favorite places because it has umami. Apparently umami is one of the five basic tastes. There are: Sweetness, Sourness, Saltiness, Bitterness—and that oddball Umami.

Umami is hard to describe but you know when it's there. The same is true of this folder's contents. It's a mixture of insights and ideas, concepts and connections, all mingling together to create that mysterious full mouthfeel that magnificently completes any meal for the mind.

So, what are "cards"? Anything that is a bit of knowledge that you might call a "thing" or a "statement about things".

Yes, the definition is not rigid, but it works.

Over time, you may have a few subfolders here too. I have a "People" subfolder. If I was an amateur chef with a growing number of recipe notes, I'd put a "Recipes" folder here. If I was making building a personal library of important exercises, I'd likely make an "Exercises" folder.

Information that crosses our attentional filter becomes knowledge.


Here is a fun view of this cards folder

[!HINT]+ This data view 🔬 only renders in the free downloadable version.
If you are viewing this note on Obsidian Publish, you won't be able to see the magic below unless you download the kit.
Note: If you can see the list below, you have already downloaded the LYT Kit.

LIST  

FROM "Cards" and -#x/index and -#x/readme

SORT file.name ASC

+ About Encounters

id : 20220830175345
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/readme

About Encounters

This is a space to store notes as you capture them.

  • Have a fresh idea that you want to reassess in a few days to see if it's still exciting?
  • Making a lot of notes but don't have the time to properly sort them?
  • Put them here.

When you're ready, return to these notes later by going to the Inbox.

+ About Extras

id : 20220830175524
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/readme

Extras

Think of the Extras folder as the toolbox for your notes.

These notes support your other notes.

  • Images automatically get added to "Images" folder (and any other attachments you bring into your vault).
  • Templates will be stored in a "Templates" folder as well.

+ About Sources

id : 20220825083315
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/readme

The beast-like Evernote Web Clipper approaches Gandalf trying to infect and corrupt your PKM sanctuary with hordes of low-value articles you'll never read and that will drown your own thinking a pit of orc-like chaos.

Choose

  • [[20220506012231|Be tempted by power and clip countless articles into your PKM note library.]]
  • [[20220903011623|Ask Gandalf for assistance.]]

+ About Spaces

id : 20220913014938
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/readme

About Spaces

Spaces are one of the most important parts of ACCESS: Whenever you have something big in your life, create a new space.

I use spaces for holding:

  • My efforts for LYT.
  • My non-idea, work notes for LYT.
  • My non-idea, work notes for my TV Editing career.
  • My personal plans and reviews.
  • My personal notes on finances.
  • Bigger Efforts, like My Newsletter MOC.
  • New areas I'm learning, like the literary industry.
  • Fun micro-efforts, like mapping issues of The Cultural Tutor's newsletter.
  • Special new efforts, where I want to mindfully incubate related notes, to allow them to slowly develop.
  • Folder packs I share, like the LYT Kit and Obsidian Flight School.
  • Other big, hard-to-define things
  • And whatever else demands its own space!

Can you see how terms like "projects" and "areas" just don't cut it? When you work with ideas, you need looser terms.

"Spaces" are more flexible than "projects" and more versatile than "areas". Spaces contain both—and more—because they contain efforts.

Between "spaces" and "efforts" and "Maps of Content", you have the terms that will allow your ideas the room to breath and the flexibility to grow.

+ Start Here

id : 20220429053519
type : undefined
keywords :

The safe trail ends. A forest stands before you.

Taking a deep breath, you enter the forest.

150 - The Almagest

id : 20220829225600
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Ancient Greece MOC]]
tags:: #source/book
dates:: 150 CE

150 📚 The Almagest

The Almagest is a 2nd-century Greek-language mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius [[20220829214505|Ptolemy (kit)]]

Here's me opining about this foundational text

  • The Almagest shows our ability to problem solve
  • The Almagest shows that: if it practically works, it's more believable
  • The Almagest shows our ability to force fit incorrect solutions, and then believe those solutions
  • The Almagest shows how we conflate some truth in a person, statement, or idea, with total truth
    • But that's not the case: [[20220830023035|People's attributes are domain-specific]]
  • Belief governs reality
  • Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, Belief finds a way
  • The fluid in the ear keeps our equilibrium,
  • We have an existential protection mechanism that filters out details that challenge our beliefs
  • When reality disproves our beliefs, we either ignore, punch back, distract, ("whataboutism"), or tack onto the narrative
  • When reality disproves our beliefs, it's easier to change the narrative protecting our beliefs, than to actually change our beliefs
  • Be careful what you believe, because your beliefs exert mind control on you
  • Geocentrism shows our vanity, our ego, our narcissism
  • ❓ I wonder how much sooner the Chinese accepted the earth was round
  • ❓ I wonder how much sooner the Chinese accepted the earth was not the center of the universe
  • We just believe whatever we want to believe

Cite

1999 📚 The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy

  • Michael Hoskin, Cambridge University Press, Mar 18, 1999 - 362 pages
  • Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics. It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics, including stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy--and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas other than astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background to their studies.

Text, pp43-44


The technical ingenuity that Ptolemy's displays in the Almagest is illustrated by his model of the motion in longitude (that is, around the Sun's path or 'ecliptic') of one of the planets Mars, Jupiter or Saturn. The Earth is at 0, and M is the centre of the large (deferent) circle. C is a point on the deferent circle, and is itself the centre of the epicycle on which travels the planet P. E is a point (the equant point) on the line OM (extended), such that OM=ME. C moves around on the deferent circle with a variable angular velocity, such that, viewed from the equant point E, it appears to be travelling uniformly. P moves on the epicycle in such a way that CP is always parallel to the line from O to the 'mean Sun' (reflecting the fact that the Earth-based observer is in reality in motion around the Sun). The ratio of the radii of the circles, the 'eccentrity' OM, and the two angular velocities, are then chosen to fit the motion of the particular planet.


debate in the universities of the medieval West. It would be difficult enough for university students of Arts to reconcile eccentres and epicycles with what they were taught in their natural philosophy about the uniform motions of the Aristotelian concentric spheres; to reconcile the equant was quite impossible.

For this very reason, Copernicus in the sixteenth century would see it as a matter for self-congratulation, that his models needed no equants.

In the Almagest, Ptolemy provided geometric models that would, with fair accuracy, predict the motions of every one of the seven wanderers. He showed how the all-important parameters in his models could be derived from observations, though his general strategy was to work in the opposite direction: to present the models and then to 'test' them by comparing deductions from them against observations. With the help of the Almagest, mathematical astronomers (and astrologers) would be able to calculate tables of the positions of a planet in longitude and latitude for the indefinite future.

There were of course problems. He had found that the model for the Moon as adapted from Hipparchus represented well enough positions of the planet when Earth, Sun and Moon were in a straight line -unsurprisingly, in view of the use Hipparchus had made of Babylonian eclipse
p44
records in deriving his model but was unsatisfactory elsewhere. To remedy the defect, and so account for the Moon's irregularity that later became known as 'evection', he introduced a 'crank' mechanism that varied the distance from Earth of the Moon's epicycle. When Earth, Sun and Moon were aligned, the crank was fully extended and its presence made no difference; but elsewhere the crank pulled in the epicycle towards the Earth, most of all when the angle Sun-Earth-Moon was a right angle. The resulting model was satisfactory as far as computing lunar positions was concerned, but it implied that the height of the Moon above the Earth varied between 33 and 64 Earth radii. This ought to have resulted in its apparent diameter varying by a factor of nearly two; yet such variations were not in fact observed in the real Moon. How much this bothered Ptolemy's readers depended on whether they were looking for something more than accurate tables of position.

Another problem stemmed from a curious fact of observation. Two of the lesser planets -Mercury and Venus are never to be seen far from the Sun: they rise and set with the Sun, unlike Mars, Jupiter and Saturn which may be seen in the sky at any time of night. Ptolemy replicated this in his models for Venus and Mercury by aligning the centres of their epicycles with the 'mean Sun', sO that all three had the same period of one year. Some of his readers, however, were unhappy with such an ad hoc device.

But these were details. Ptolemy's Almagest achieved what it set out to do: to provide a set of geometrical models for calculating accurate tables of the future positions in the sky of each of the seven planets. It marked the culmination of centuries of effort.

Ptolemy made no attempt in the Almagest to present an integrated 'Ptolemaic System' of the heavens, but he did permit himself a few sentences on the order of the planets, in terms of their respective heights above the central Earth. It seemed plausible to make the fixed stars the outermost (as indeed Eudoxus and Aristotle had assumed half millennium before), and to place nearest to these stars those planets whose motions most closely imitated the motion of the stars. On this basis Saturn -whose motion differed from that of the stars by only one circuit every thirty years -was the highest of the planets, with Jupiter (one in twelve years) and Mars (one in two years) next. At the other extreme, the Moon (one each month) was to be placed closest to the Earth.

1844 - The Count of Monte Cristo (book)

id : 20220829225451
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Sources MOC
tags:: #source/book
dates:: 1844

1844 📚 The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of monte cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author [[Alexandre Dumas]] (père) completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with The Three Musketeers.

Wikipedia

Related Notes

  • [[20220829224910|evaporated in a thousand follies'']]

  • Back Matter
    • published:: 1844
    • read:: 2014

1949 - 1984 (book)

id : 20220829223102
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Sources MOC
tags:: #source/book
dates:: 1949

1949 📚 1984

[[George Orwell]] understood the power of language. In his novel 1984, the "Big Brother" government enforces a language called "NewSpeak" that eliminates words. They get rid of "bad". They get rid of "great". Now there's just "good", "ungood", and "double-plus good". This brutal collapse of word choice imprisons our ability to express ourselves...our ability to articulate the complex thoughts and emotions we're having.

Fast forward to the today, and who would have thought we'd choose to imprison ourselves...wearing our reduced vocabularies as some sort of badge of honor, scared that if we start using the big words we will somehow screw with our identity.

But without the big words in your back pocket, it just makes it easier for Big Brother to screw with you!

%%
The central principle of NewSpeak is that it makes it impossible to contemplate rebellion against the state.

The people are effectively handicapped in their ability to think critically, analytically—and at times—skeptically, to the people, arguments, and ideas they encounter.

More

Written during the height of the Stalinist regime, and just after the Hitler regime. Both regimes of terror and violence.
%%

1962 - Sinnerman (song)

id : 20220829225628
type : undefined
keywords :

tags:: #source/music/100
dates:: 1962
URL:: wiki

Sinnerman (1962)

Being trapped searching endlessly for salvation

Web

"Sinner Man" or "Sinnerman" is an African American traditional spiritual song that has been recorded by a number of performers and has been incorporated in many other media and arts. The lyrics describe a sinner attempting to hide from divine justice on Judgment Day.

[[20220830002242|Nina Simone (kit)]] recorded her definitive 10-minute-plus version on her 1965 album Pastel Blues, on which the credit is simply given as "Arranged by Nina Simone" .

The earliest recording of the song to bear the title "Sinner Man" was by the Les Baxter Orchestra in 1956.

1993 - Groundhog Day (kit)

id : 20220829225521
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Movies MOC]]
tags:: #source/movie
dates:: 1993
URL:: imdb

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Groundhog Day (1993)

I love these types of movies where the protagonist replays events. It's a kind of two-hour existential simulation.

Groundhog Day dances in sync with the Buddhist thoughts on suffering through the stages of [[Samsara]] for Phil Connors ([[Bill Murray]]) - Cycle of Birth Death (Cycle of Dragon and Phoenix)

In Buddhism, Samsara is the cycle of becoming driven by our karmic intentional activity. Eventually, through repeating the same day for decades, he accepts his fate, tries less, and gives more. Only then does he break the cycle of Groundhog Day.

Here's the thing, we're all repeating the same day for decades, and something deep within me feels that just like Phil, we too can slightly break away from the cycle of Samsara by accepting more, trying less, and giving more. But, but, but...I don't know if I want to just yet!

#note/question❓ Why is the pull of Samsara so strong? What does Jane English's interpretation of the [[Tao De Ching]] say (it's in the second chapter, in the appended notes section)?

Phil's Stages

  • Disbelief
  • Taking advantage
  • Risky Behavior
  • Boredom
  • Suicide
  • Rebirth ... accepting of fate ...
  • Skill Development
  • Care for other
  • Eventually, does not try anymore, which allows for true participation and enjoyment. Every moment of his day becomes appreciated. Only after Phil Connors gives up trying to "win the girl" by possessing her, can a space open up for true intimacy.

#note/question❓ How does Phil's journey compare to Joseph Knecht's journey in [[1943 - The Glass Bead Game]]? Or [[Siddhartha]]'s for that matter?

Although the idea of replaying opportunities in life could seem like a gift, it becomes a trap if we become consumed by it. This is where each action of ours has consequences. And this is the law of [[Karma]]: Phil makes choices. Each choice leads to a new reality. We often choose the cycle of Samsara and suffering. But the profound existential message is that, even in our darkest hour, even when we are at our lowest point, within that fire of suffering are the seeds of renewal—of Spring. This is a form of the [[Dragon and Phoenix]].

Related

Groundhog Dog will remain the best ever, but I must say that [[2018 📺 Russian Doll (kit)]] is a fresh and intriguing take on the genre. "About Time" is a family-friendly, happy ending version. "The Butterfly Effect" is the not-so-happy ending version.

2009 - Analogy as Core - Hofstadter (talk)

id : 20220831002647
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: Concept Expansion
tags:: #source/speech
dates:: 2020-06-06
URL:: Youtube

2009 🗣 Analogy as Core - Hofstadter

Overview
  • What: In this Presidential Lecture, cognitive scientist [[20220813003302|Douglas R. Hofstadter]] examines the role and contributions of analogy in cognition, using a variety of analogies to illustrate his points.
  • Why: This is important to me because of it is about how to talk about, and define, thinking—especially figurative language and concepts.
Notables
  • Concept Expansion, Chunking, Analogies as reminding events

Notes

  • Analogy-making - the perception of common• essence between 2 things••
    • •in one's current frame of mind
    • ••thing »» mental thing
  • Reminding events - A lot of analogies are reminding events. There is no purpose (sure they serve "evolution"), but they just happen. These events happen so quickly and fleetingly, often leaving no long-term effect. They appear and go away.

Concepts expand

  • a shadow from the sun...then a snow shadow...then a rain shadow...a familial shadow...in the shadow of a big event...gulf stream (England casts a shadow) see Concept Expansion
  • By seeing new instances of the word "shadow", we're expanding our sense of what the word "shadow" means.
  • Repeated analogies expand concepts #source/quote/250

Chunking

  • There is no fundamental difference between a single memory trace and a category/concept.
  • The special magic of the human mind is limitless Chunking...where primordial concepts in some interrelationship becomes part of a larger unit. We build our concepts this way and eventually the primordial concepts miraculously disappear. ^ffe150
  • There is no fundamental difference between primordial tangible concepts• and highly-chunked abstract concepts••
    • •e.g., hand, chair, book, office
    • ••e.g., hub, soap opera, sleazeball, wilderness protection legislation, scientific break-even for laser fusion

The continuum of concepts

  • Labeled concepts

    • Primordial words, simple words, compound words, phrases, proverbs
  • Unlabeled concepts

    • fleeting remindings, me-too's, political analogies, personal-situation mappings, scientific leaps
    • a lot of our concepts are completely unlabeled, old experiences can be triggered by some new event in the future; i.e., Doug's subscript disillusionment as a child connecting to his daughter's disillusionment as a child.
  • Primordial concepts (not always nouns or even visible or sensory things)
    - Mama, good, hand, hurt, red, loud, Where?, Please! Why?, in, out, here
    - Please! For example, there are certain circumstances where that word (that mental concept) is evoked

  • Simple concepts
    - chair, "A", family, mess, probably, proab-lee!, come on!, I mean,...; Well,...;Hi!, kind of, but, Anyway,.., No kidding!

  • Compound words: armchair, backlog, nice and easy, happy-go-lucky, notwithstanding, commuter railway, weekend, and/or, to and fro, slippery slope

  • Phrases: Speak of the devil!, Fancy that!, Well, excuuuuuse me!

  • Proverbs: "Seen one, seen 'em all"; Fight fire with fire

  • Joe Becker - 1975

    • The mental lexicon »» the phrasal lexicon
    • Proverbs etc are situation-labels. Example: Sour grapes

Individual words are the locus of a fight

  • Every "effortless" category assignment is actually a seething subterranean battle of analogies #source/quote When the battle is a landslide, there's no evidence. When the battle is close, there is evidence galore.

    • Individual words are the locus of a fight.
    • any time a word is chosen, there is a subterranean fight taking place for primacy
    • sometimes there is a clear winner "dog"
    • sometimes it's close like "vilagent" which blends "vigilant" and "diligent"
    • I should "count my lucky stars" -- count my blessings vs thank my lucky stars
    • "insmide my mind" -- in my mind vs inside my mind
    • "i'm worried that my editor is going to hit the stack"
      • hit the ceiling vs blow his stack vs hit the sack (he was tired)
    • we'll "pull no stops unturned to get him" -- pull out all the stops vs leave no stone unturned
  • "Thought is seeking the highest level of abstraction, putting one's finger on the essence of a situation. And then bouncing back and forth between the actual situation, and the essence that one found in one's memory" #source/quote

Cognition-core hypothesis

  • How [[Albert Einstein]]'s Light-Quantum Hypothesis came out of a connection between two bell-shaped curves
  • Conclusion: If the following list are all made of analogies, might not ALL OF COGNITION also be made of analogies? This is Hofstadter's Cognition-core hypothesis.
    • strokes of genius, personal insights, dinner-table conversations, me-too comments, random reminders, instantaneous categorizations, blends of all sorts

  • Back Matter
    • watched:: 2020-06-06

2010 - Willpower - Robinson et al (paper)

id : 20220902030423
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage
tags:: #source/paper #on/willpower
dates:: 2010
people:: Michael D. Robinson, Brandon J. Schmeichel, Michael Inzlicht
URL:: paper

A Cognitive Control Perspective of Self-Control Strength and Its Depletion - Robinson, Et al. 2010

Abstract: Self‐control strength is a central construct to theories of willpower, optimal functioning, freedom from addiction, and abilities to override problematic social motives and behaviors (e.g., aggression). Understanding the processing basis of self‐control strength, and more particularly its depletion, is thus of paramount importance to both basic and applied literatures. Self‐control strength, the present review suggests, can be profitably viewed in cognitive control terms, particularly so in relation to operations of a brain‐based cognitive control circuit involving the anterior cingulate cortex (linked to monitoring potential or actual unwanted outcomes) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (linked to controlling potential or actual unwanted outcomes). Also, sufficient task motivation is important to operations of this circuit and depletion effects might be understood in terms of such depletion effects on task motivation. Multiple sources of evidence are marshaled in support of this cognitive control perspective of self‐control strength. It is concluded that viewing self‐control strength in cognitive control terms has considerable merit. Social, cognitive, personality, and clinical sources of data are integrated in the analysis.
- why:

Extracted Annotations (3/7/2015, 4:26:55 PM)

"William James (1890) was among the first psychologists to highlight the importance of self-control to adaptive functioning." (Robinson et al 2010:189)

"The self-control and cognitive control literatures, thus, would seem to overlap considerably in their mutual concern with the person's ability to inhibit dominant responses in a task-defined or otherwise strategic manner (Miller & Cohen, 2001; van Veen & Carter, 2006)." (Robinson et al 2010:191)

"In neurocognitive terms, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in monitoring problematic processing and behavioral occurrences (van Veen & Carter, 2006), whereas the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is involved in instantiating cognitive control in a goal-directed (rather than habitual) manner (Kerns et al., 2004; Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2005)." (Robinson et al 2010:191)

"we suggest that self-control is probably not special, but rather borrows from a general-purpose brain-based system related to concern with, monitoring of, and remediation of problematic events and behaviors of multiple types (Miller & Cohen, 2001)." (Robinson et al 2010:192)

"An energizer of the cognitive control system is motivation (Sarter, Gehring, & Kozak, 2006). Stated in other terms, if there is low motivation to control a problematic tendency, it is unlikely that the cognitive control system of the prefrontal cortex will be recruited. This in turn would result in suboptimal performance (Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2005). Thus, one major component to self-control strength is likely one's willingness to work hard on a difficult task." (Robinson et al 2010:192)

"Potentially separable from self-control capacity or even task motivation is what we term task monitoring. To perform non-habitual tasks well, potential or actual mistakes must be recognized. In the absence of recognizing error-proneness, cognitive and behavioral habits would dominate (Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2005)" (Robinson et al 2010:192)

"Although many of these habits would generally serve the self, many would not (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999)." (Robinson et al 2010:192) ^309fcc

"The success (versus failure) of cognitive control is primarily a result of dlPFC activation (Kerns et al., 2004) and the processes uniquely implemented by this brain structure (Knight & Stuss, 2002)." (Robinson et al 2010:192)

"Note that these consequences of dlPFC damage are highly consistent with impaired self-control as highlighted by the strength-based theory of self-control (Baumeister et al., 2000). Thus, it is suggested that the recruitment of the dlPFC's resources should play an important role in understanding whether self-control will be instantiated or not (Goldberg, 2001)." (Robinson et al 2010:192)

"These data strongly suggest that basic processes related to cognitive control (e.g., working memory, reliant on the dlPFC: Goldberg, 2001) overlap considerably with those involved in self-control of a more molar social type (e.g., suppressing one's emotional displays)." (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"In sum, there appears to be a close potential link between lower levels of task-motivation and self-control failures." (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"The latter result is particularly important because numerous studies have now shown that being mindful of present reality (i.e., monitoring it to a greater extent) mitigates even clinical tendencies toward depression (Williams, 2008)." (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"Compton et al. (2008) found that individuals displaying stronger ERN responses to errors (reflecting error-monitoring processes: Holroyd & Coles, 2002) were better able to control their emotional reactions to stressors in daily life." (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"ERN" (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"ndividuals displaying stronger ERNs had higher GPAs, a classic measure of self-control success (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004)." (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"the monitoring processes linked to the ACC (" (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"ERN" (Robinson et al 2010:193)

"They found that a self-control depletion manipulation resulted in a smaller subsequent ERN signal in a basic cognitive task. Conceptually similar results have been reported by others (Inzlicht, McKay, & Aronson, 2006; Richeson & Shelton, 2003)." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"Thus, task monitoring is sensitive to both depletion and motivational influences and may thus be a key component of whether self-control performance will be successful or not." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"ACC serves a quite general purpose in recognizing problematic occurrences, cognitive as well as social" (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"Finally, there is a great deal of convergence on the importance of the ACC (the generator of the ERN: van Veen & Carter, 2002) to monitoring both unwanted cognitive and social outcomes. It is well-established that the ACC responds to error-prone contexts or actual errors (van Veen & Carter, 2006). More recently, it has been shown that the ACC responds to social rejection manipulations (Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003), pain (Rainville, Duncan, Price, Carrier, & Bushnell, 1997), and negative emotional events and experiences (Duncan & Barrett, 2007). Data of this type have led to the idea that the ACC serves a quite general purpose in recognizing problematic occurrences, cognitive as well as social (Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2005). Results of this type are further suggestive that the same ACC-dlPFC circuit is likely to be involved in both cognitive control and self-control (Goldberg, 2001)." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"role of the ACC is conceptualized as a problem-monitor" (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"Thus, the role of the ACC is conceptualized as a problem-monitor, which in turn recruits the dlPFC to do the actual work of inhibiting problematic response tendencies (Miller & Cohen, 2001)." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"The first source establishes quite clearly that damage to the dlPFC results in problems in controlling habitual thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviors (Knight & Stuss, 2002)." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"Thus, if there is a brain locus of self-control, it is most clearly dependent on processes instantiated by the dlPFC (Goldberg, 2001)." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"In this cognitive control context, the five studies of Robinson (2007) are informative. He found that individuals who paused following their cognitive errors to a greater extent reported (1) higher levels of life satisfaction, (2) lower levels of depression, (3) were seen to be happier by naı ̈ve observers, (4) were better capable of recognizing rewards and punishments in the environment, and (5) exhibited better abilities to inhibit dominant task sets." (Robinson et al 2010:194)

"Moeller and Robinson (2009) found that men, relative to women, exhibited this tendency to a lesser extent, consistent with men's greater levels of behavioral impulsivity (e.g., Eagly & Steffen, 1986)." (Robinson et al 2010:195)

"Thus, a cognitive control model of self-control strength appears to have considerable value," (Robinson et al 2010:195)

"ACC to serve as an effective 'alarm' system" (Robinson et al 2010:195)

"For the ACC to serve as an effective 'alarm' system (Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2005), it should remain quiescent much of the time. Otherwise, it would lose its value, much like in the 'boy who cried wolf' parable." (Robinson et al 2010:195)

"What Baumeister and Vohs additionally suggested was that people are motivated to preserve their self-control resources for possible future use. Thus, there may be an inverse relation between task motivation and motivation to preserve one's self-control resources." (Robinson et al 2010:196)

"A further question should be considered - namely, whether self-control strength can be viewed in motivational rather than capacity-related terms, a possibility hinted at by some sources of data (Moller et al., 2006; Muraven & Slessareva, 2003). Regardless, further work concerned with this motivational-capacity interface seems desirable in better understanding it." (Robinson et al 2010:197)


  • Back Matter
    • published:: 2010
    • read:: 2015-03-07

2015 - Between the World and Me (book)

id : 20220829225152
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Sources MOC
tags:: #source/book
people:: Ta-Nehisi Coates
dates:: 2015

Notes from Between the World and Me

But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy. Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible—this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white.


machinery of criminal power


to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen’s claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard. This is difficult because there exists, all around us, an apparatus urging us to accept American innocence at face value and not to inquire too much


I was sad. When the journalist asked me about my body, it was like she was asking me to awaken her from the most gorgeous dream.


skeptical of preordained American glory


To survive the neighborhoods and shield my body, I learned another language consisting of a basic complement of head nods and handshakes. I memorized a list of prohibited blocks. I learned the smell and feel of fighting weather. And I learned that “Shorty, can I see your bike?” was never a sincere question, and “Yo, you was messing with my cousin” was neither an earnest accusation nor a misunderstanding of the facts. These were the summonses that you answered with your left foot forward, your right foot back, your hands guarding your face, one slightly lower than the other, cocked like a hammer. Or they were answered by breaking out, ducking through alleys, cutting through backyards, then bounding through the door past your kid brother into your bedroom, pulling the tool out of your lambskin or from under your mattress or out of your Adidas shoebox, then calling up your own cousins (who really aren’t) and returning to that same block, on that same day, and to that same crew, hollering out, “Yeah, nigger, what’s up now?” I recall learning these laws clearer than I recall learning my colors and shapes, because these laws were essential to the security of my body.


A year after I watched the boy with the small eyes pull out a gun, my father beat me for letting another boy steal from me. Two years later, he beat me for threatening my ninth-grade teacher. Not being violent enough could cost me my body. Being too violent could cost me my body. We could not get out. I was a capable boy, intelligent, well-liked, but powerfully afraid. And I felt, vaguely, wordlessly, that for a child to be marked off for such a life, to be forced to live in fear was a great injustice. And what was the source of this fear? What was hiding behind the smoke screen of streets and schools? And what did it mean that number 2 pencils, conjugations without context, Pythagorean theorems, handshakes, and head nods were the difference between life and death, were the curtains drawing down between the world and me?


I took a survey of Europe post-1800. I saw black people, rendered through “white” eyes, unlike any I’d seen before—the black people looked regal and human. I remember the soft face of Alessandro de’ Medici, the royal bearing of Bosch’s black magi. These images, cast in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were contrasted with those created after enslavement, the Sambo caricatures I had always known. What was the difference? In my survey course of America, I’d seen portraits of the Irish drawn in the same ravenous, lustful, and simian way. Perhaps there had been other bodies, mocked, terrorized, and insecure. Perhaps the Irish too had once lost their bodies. Perhaps being named “black” had nothing to do with any of this; perhaps being named “black” was just someone’s name for being at the bottom, a human turned to object, object turned to pariah.


But not all of us. It must have been around that time that I discovered an essay by Ralph Wiley in which he responded to Bellow’s quip. “Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus,” wrote Wiley. “Unless you find a profit in fencing off universal properties of mankind into exclusive tribal ownership.” And there it was. I had accepted Bellow’s premise. In fact, Bellow was no closer to Tolstoy than I was to Nzinga. And if I were closer it would be because I chose to be, not because of destiny written in DNA. My great error was not that I had accepted someone else’s dream but that I had accepted the fact of dreams, the need for escape, and the invention of racecraft.


She had never known her father, which put her in the company of the greater number of everyone I’d known. I felt then that these men—these “fathers”—were the greatest of cowards. But I also felt that the galaxy was playing with loaded dice, which ensured an excess of cowards in our ranks. The girl from Chicago understood this too, and she understood something more—that all are not equally robbed of their bodies, that the bodies of women are set out for pillage in ways I could never truly know. And she was the kind of black girl who’d been told as a child that she had better be smart because her looks wouldn’t save her, and then told as a young woman that she was really pretty for a dark-skinned girl. And so there was, all about her, a knowledge of cosmic injustices, the same knowledge I’d glimpsed all those years ago watching my father reach for his belt, watching the suburban dispatches in my living room, watching the golden-haired boys with their toy trucks and football cards, and dimly perceiving the great barrier between the world and me.


There was also wisdom in those streets. I think now of the old rule that held that should a boy be set upon in someone else’s chancy hood, his friends must stand with him, and they must all take their beating together. I now know that within this edict lay the key to all living. None of us were promised to end the fight on our feet, fists raised to the sky. We could not control our enemies’ number, strength, nor weaponry. Sometimes you just caught a bad one. But whether you fought or ran, you did it together, because that is the part that was in our control. What we must never do is willingly hand over our own bodies or the bodies of our friends. That was the wisdom: We knew we did not lay down the direction of the street, but despite that, we could—and must—fashion the way of our walk. And that is the deeper meaning of your name—that the struggle, in and of itself, has meaning.


I have raised you to respect every human being as singular


Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains—whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.


So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope.


Love it more with every new inch I discover. But you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know. Indeed, you must be responsible for the worst actions of other black bodies, which, somehow, will always be assigned to you. And you must be responsible for the bodies of the powerful—the policeman who cracks you with a nightstick will quickly find his excuse in your furtive movements. And this is not reducible to just you—the women around you must be responsible for their bodies in a way that you never will know.


You have to make your peace with the chaos, but you cannot lie. You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured our very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold.


I heard several people ask for forgiveness for the officer who’d shot Prince Jones down. I only vaguely recall my impressions of all this. But I know that I have always felt great distance from the grieving rituals of my people, and I must have felt it powerfully then. The need to forgive the officer would not have moved me, because even then, in some inchoate form, I knew that Prince was not killed by a single officer so much as he was murdered by his country and all the fears that have marked it from birth.


Perhaps you remember that time we went to see Howl’s Moving Castle on the Upper West Side. You were almost five years old. The theater was crowded, and when we came out we rode a set of escalators down to the ground floor. As we came off, you were moving at the dawdling speed of a small child. A white woman pushed you and said, “Come on!” Many things now happened at once. There was the reaction of any parent when a stranger lays a hand on the body of his or her child. And there was my own insecurity in my ability to protect your black body. And more: There was my sense that this woman was pulling rank. I knew, for instance, that she would not have pushed a black child out on my part of Flatbush, because she would be afraid there and would sense, if not know, that there would be a penalty for such an action. But I was not out on my part of Flatbush. And I was not in West Baltimore. And I was far from The Mecca. I forgot all of that. I was only aware that someone had invoked their right over the body of my son. I turned and spoke to this woman, and my words were hot with all of the moment and all of my history. She shrunk back, shocked. A white man standing nearby spoke up in her defense. I experienced this as his attempt to rescue the damsel from the beast. He had made no such attempt on behalf of my son. And he was now supported by other white people in the assembling crowd. The man came closer. He grew louder. I pushed him away. He said, “I could have you arrested!” I did not care. I told him this, and the desire to do much more was hot in my throat. This desire was only controllable because I remembered someone standing off to the side there, bearing witness to more fury than he had ever seen from me—you.
I came home shook. It was a mix of shame for having gone back to the law of the streets mixed with rage—“I could have you arrested!” Which is to say: “I could take your body.”


The man ranted on. When the officers turned away, he ranted more to the group of black men assembled who’d been hired to sit his family out on the street. His manner was like all the powerless black people I’d ever known, exaggerating their bodies to conceal a fundamental plunder that they could not prevent.


A few weeks into our stay, I made a friend who wanted to improve his English as much as I wanted to improve my French. We met one day out in the crowd in front of Notre Dame. We walked to the Latin Quarter. We walked to a wine shop. Outside the wine shop there was seating. We sat and drank a bottle of red. We were served heaping piles of meats, bread, and cheese. Was this dinner? Did people do this? I had not even known how to imagine it. And more, was this all some elaborate ritual to get an angle on me? My friend paid. I thanked him. But when we left I made sure he walked out first. He wanted to show me one of those old buildings that seem to be around every corner in that city. And the entire time he was leading me, I was sure he was going to make a quick turn into an alley, where some dudes would be waiting to strip me of…what, exactly? But my new friend simply showed me the building, shook my hand, gave a fine bonne soirée, and walked off into the wide open night. And watching him walk away, I felt that I had missed part of the experience because of my eyes, because my eyes were made in Baltimore, because my eyes were blindfolded by fear.


I drove away from the house of Mable Jones thinking of all of this. I drove away, as always, thinking of you. I do not believe that we can stop them, Samori, because they must ultimately stop themselves.

[[20220813003209|How can we be responsible pro-active citizens without becoming full-time activists]]


I saw these ghettos driving back from Dr. Jones’s home. They were the same ghettos I had seen in Chicago all those years ago, the same ghettos where my mother was raised, where my father was raised. Through the windshield I saw the mark of these ghettos—the abundance of beauty shops, churches, liquor stores, and crumbling housing—and I felt the old fear. Through the windshield I saw the rain coming down in sheets.


  • Back Matter
    • published:: 2015
    • read:: 2020-06

2018 - Atomic Habits (book)

id : 20220829225318
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #source/book #on/habit
dates:: 2018

Atomic Habits

[[James Clear]] suggests to focus on Identity over Outcome: ie "I'm the guy who..." over thinking about the result I want...Every action you take is you casting a vote for your identity.

Winners and losers often have the same goals, so what is it that actually makes a difference? It's the system and process behind the goal. Achieving your goal only changes your life for a moment. We think the results need to change, but it's the process that needs to change. Habits are the fundamental unit of your systems. Your current systems are perfectly designed to provide you with your current results.

  • Cue (Make it Obvious vs Invisible)
  • Craving (Make it Attractive vs Unattractive) - timing is important
  • Routine (Make it Easy vs Difficult)
  • Reward (Make it Satisfying vs Unsatisfying) - Behaviors that are immediately rewarded get repeated. Behaviors that are immediately punished don't get repeated. That's why you need to make it enjoyable in the moment. One way is tying your identity to it. Frame your rewards.

  • The first step is Awareness. Discover and record your habits throughout the day.
  • The more specific the implementation, the more motivation, ie time, place, etc

The Goldilocks rule: is nothing more than Flow: balance challenge with ability, 3-4% beyond your current ability. You need victories to stay satisfied, but you need to be challenged. Apparently in this context, it's important to keep things from getting stale.

"Men desire novelty to such a degree that men who are doing well require it just as much as men who are not."

%%

Related

Resiliency Routines: 201901250999
Habit Planning: 201303102051
Golden Habits: 201406289999
PD Lists: 201511121539

Notes

  • 235 what he calls Goldilocks Rule / Goldilocks Zone is just the Flow / Flow Zone

%%

a few so free that they are enslaved in pursuit of their follies''

id : 20220829195223
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829224910|evaporated in a thousand follies'']]
tags:: #on/Freedom #source/quote/100

"All are free to choose their thoughts. Some are free to choose their pursuits. And a few so free that they are enslaved in pursuit of their follies." - Nick Milo

I'm sure this was inspired by [[20220829224910|evaporated in a thousand follies'']].


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2015-01-22

About LYT

id : 20220902013835
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

About LYT

Why do you care about digital notes? What are you actually trying to do?

That is not easy to answer. And that’s okay! But it’s worth thinking about. For me, it’s:

  • So I don’t forget things
  • So I can make sense of my experiences
  • So I can reference my past thoughts as I write new thoughts
  • So I can connect ideas across domains
  • So I can develop those ideas across time
  • So I can create and share those ideas across the world—even if that’s just the world between my ears.

Speaking from experience, it matters how you set up your digital notes—your PKM system—so that will grow and evolve with you, not just for this month, not for the year, but throughout your entire life.

That's a really powerful thing. Because if you can’t rely on your digital notes—you’re just one step away from digital dementia.

The goal of LYT is to enhance your experience of working with your PKM system. It provides flexibility, longevity, and a bevy of other benefits.

If have received any value out of this or would like learn more, please reach out:

Stay connected,

Nick

Aikido

id : 20220829195201
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Aikido

There is an art to handling self-perpetuating aggressiveness.

Aikido deflects and dissipates an attacker's energy.

In this way, Aikido relates to [[20220512053552|No-Face]] and The Id. This form of energy manipulation happens all the time in "Rhetorical Jujutsu".

Wiki

Aikido is a modern Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy and religious beliefs. Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. Aikido is often translated as "the way of unifying life energy" or as "the way of harmonious spirit".


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 1920s - 1930s

An asymptotic curve models the development of skills, strength, habits, and more

id : 20220830175246
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit #on/Practice

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

An asymptotic curve models the development of skills, strength, habits, and more

An asymptotic curve is seen in the development of habits, skills, muscles, and more.

The asymptotic curve rises fast on the y-axis before leveling out. Practically, this models the rate of improvement when we start a new habit or develop a new skill.

A-curve|400

  • Graph from “Promoting Habit Formation,” Lally et al. [^1]

Initial improvement is rapid but then slows down before plateauing. If we don't change up our actions, that slow down will reach the [[Point of Diminishing Returns]] and become a plateau.[^2]

The a-curve models the following:

  • skill development (reference Ericsson 1993)
  • Strength Development
  • memory development via spaced repetition (the inverse of which is the "forgetting curve") (See: [[How the LYT System enriches Spaced Repetition]]) ^ab3d72
  • habit formation
  • attention spans

The A-curve in Strength Development

https://www.elitefts.com/education/the-development-of-the-russian-conjugate-sequence-system/

Russian Conjugate Method in Strength Development|400

Overcoming Plateaus
Overcoming Plateaus|400


[^1]: Promoting habit formation, 2011, Lally et al
[^2]: This also relates, in general, to the [[Pareto Principle]], although I'd say for the a-curve it's more like the final 10% of the task takes as long as the prior 90%. Remember both points when "fighting perfectionism".


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2015-02-20
    • created:: 2015-02-20
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Ant pheromone trails act like potential habits

id : 20220503185808
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit

Ant pheromone trails act like potential habits

pheromone trails can become pheromone super-highways

Ants produce a mixture of chemicals that they leave behind as they walk, which we then refer to as pheromone trails. These trails lead the ants to food and water sources.

In this way, one ant's pheromone trail is like when we're creating a new habit (whether it's intentional or not). The pheromone trail increases the chance that that very same trail will be walked again. This is how cobwebs can turn into cables over time (see: Cobwebs into Cables). Or put another way, this is how a pheromone trail can become a pheromone super-highway.

Antifragility

id : 20220829222053
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Antifragility

Stronger from stressors!

Obi-Wan Kenobi's quote from Star Wars always reminds me of Antifragility:

"If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

In a sideways way, this ties into the metaphor of the phoenix being reborn from the ashes of the dragon—and of the hydra having its head cut off, only to have two replace it.

Using alliteration, it's: getting stronger from stressors, more settled from shaking, more adaptable from attacks.

In a way, antifragility is a faster form of Natural Selection.

Antifragility is closely related to resilience/robustness, although resilience shouts "Still standing after stressors!"

Unsorted

  • Hormesis and the Lindy Effect
  • Eventually, tie this into my other thoughts: [[201509091056]] (not included in the LYT Kit)

References

Wiki

Antifragility is a property of systems that increase in capability, resilience, or robustness as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures.

It's fundamentally different from the concepts of resiliency (i.e. the ability to recover from failure) and robustness (that is, the ability to resist failure).

Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.

Domains: The concept has been applied in physics, risk analysis, molecular biology, transportation planning, engineering, aerospace, megaproject management, and computer science.

Background: Developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Art of Link Curation

id : 20220813001146
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: You are what you eat

Art of Link Curation

Links matter.

Sharing link-based knowledge online has revealed new responsibilities—and opportunities.

Don't overwhelm your reader with lazy linking to every dang thing. Show some restraint man!

You need to at least consider how you might direct, guide, and engage your readers through the "Art of Link Curation."

But the over-linking problems don't just affect the reader, it affects you, the builder. How? Link Dilution.

Link Dilution

"Link Dilution" is what happens when we over-link things... It's great at first, because we get all giddy look at the backlinks (and the graph).

But folks over-linking are in for a very rude awakening if they continue over-link everything all the time. Why? Because over time, the backlinks will overpopulate like weeds, covering up the more valuable connections by their sheer numbers.

It's the same thing that happened to many people in Evernote who saved too many articles. It buried the personally meaningful links under a pile of mostly worthless links. Over time, you end up scrolling and wasting more and more time hunting for meaningful links amidst all the noise of all the false-positives. That's Link Dilution.


There are a lot of PKM dead-ends, but you'll avoid many of them now that you're equipped with this knowledge. Because there are dead-ends, and then there are rabbit holes.

Ask Gandalf for assistance.

id : 20220903011623
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220825083315|+ About Sources]]

Fortunately, Gandalf will save you this time. He summons the flame of Anor and epically declares:

GANDALF: "You shall not pass!"

The Evernote Web Clipper falters and slinks back into the shadows.

All is safe...for now...


Separating the Signal from the Noise in your PKM efforts is an ongoing effort. Of course there are sources to save and add to your PKM library. Just not everything.

What the right balance is for you will be different than for me, but if I can edge down your ratios of clip articles to generated notes, then my mission is accomplished.

Assembling a random article on habits

id : 20220617184828
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC

Here's my showing how I can use the Habits MOC to outline a specific and linear article about habits.

Intro

Feedback Loop
Cobwebs into Cables, Reps, Sense of Control

Natural Selection, Selfish Gene, Survival of the Fittest

P1 A pattern in Habits that's also in a bunch of other stuff

P2 Understanding Habis

P3 Designing Habits

Conclusion


Supporting Material

Important Habits

Important habits preserve mental clarity and a sense of control
Preparing for the next day is an important habit
Journaling in the morning is an important habit
Writing down daily goals in the morning is an important habit

Attention (re Flow)

id : 20220829232117
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Attention

Attention is what the mind is focused on—and what it has been focused on over the recent past (the past 72 hours is simple way to look at it). Everything that enters the mind in the past 72 hours affects the next hour of thought. That's what it's so important to Guard and Guide Your Mind wisely.

Guard what enters your mind, and what stays in the mind. Reduce distractions. Reduce attentional switching.

Subsets of Attention

  • Focus — The ability to maintain focus is of crucial importance in any aspect of modern living. Without focus, life drifts from stimuli to stimuli, with very little consistent [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]].
  • Residual Attention — Your attention isn't just about what you are thinking about right now; it's more so composed of everything that's entered your mind over past 72 hours.
    • Similar Keywords: Attentional Residue, Echo, Resonating, Ripples, Shadows, Reflections, Glimmers, Whispers, Deja Vu, Attention Robbers, Attentional Switching, Distraction Radiation, Distraction Amnesia, Continuity of Thought

Main Factors Governing Attention

  • Intensity and Frequency of Distractions
    • Surroundings and Environment
  • Quality of Diet

Causes of Poor Attention

  • Distractions — Distractions come in many forms and factors. Below is a list of major sources of distraction to safeguard against:
  • [[Poor Diet]] (not available in the LYT Kit) — Sugar makes people act impulsively; they become more susceptible to distractions. Grains can cause brain fog to lowers mood and Enthusiasm. Both dramatically raise blood sugar levels causing the secretion of Insulin. The resulting fall of blood glucose levels causes hunger, irritability, and energy crashes.
  • Average Diet — Even an average diet can still have several micro-nutrient deficiencies that can be the cause of headaches, lower [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]] levels, mood swings, a lack of enthusiasm.
  • Lack of [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]]
  • Lack of [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]]

Solutions to Poor Attention

  • Reducing Distractions in Intensity and Frequency
  • Having a Good Diet

Balancing Challenge and Skill

id : 20220505230652
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Balancing Challenge and Skill

Conceptually, getting into flow requires Balancing Challenge and Skill. It's the meta-meta-skill of creating the conditions of flow.

It's the most important condition because it's the direct result of the Four Factors of Flow. They are the Elements (or Levers) that dictate whether or not you're having a quality experience.

The most notable factor we can control here is [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]]. Distractions, which are everywhere in modern society, are the bane of flow.

Be tempted by power and clip countless articles into your PKM note library.

id : 20220506012231
type : undefined
keywords :

You believe you can tame the Evernote Web Clipper. So you use it. A lot. You clip many articles into your note library. No big deal. You got this. It happens so slowly you don't realize it's becoming less joyful to enter your PKM system. Why can't you find what you're looking for as effortlessly? Slowly you just stop wanting to search for anything. You either:

Choose

  • [[20220506024221|Double down and keep collecting.]]
  • [[20220506041046|Recognize there is a problem and seek solutions.]]

Being able to adapt is an important habit

id : 20220829195102
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit #on/PD

Being able to adapt is an important habit

No day is perfect. It's crucial to balance discipline with being flexible. Too much order is fragile.

If your morning isn't perfect, deal with it. Lamenting over an interrupted routine won't get you anything worth having.

Be like the "bend but don't break" willow tree. Even when the storm comes, the willow is tough enough to bend with the blows and not break beneath them. Simple metaphor. Bend don't break. Roll with the punches. Have a little toughness. Be ready to adapt, often.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-06-28
    • created:: 2014-06-28
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Benefits of LYT frameworks

id : 20220821051241
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

Benefits of LYT frameworks

Folks relying solely on direct links, tags, and folders are missing out on a bevy of benefits. Below is a list of benefits derived from having your notes equipped with fluid frameworks like a Home note and Maps of Content.


Benefits

Provides Reliability

Having a Home note and MOCs act as reliable home bases to re-ground your thoughts whenever they begin to waver. Like a parent to a five-year old, linked frameworks like MOCs are a consistent and comforting safety net.

Disregard this at your own peril. [^1]

Provides Flexibility

Fluid Frameworks like the Home note and Maps of Content don't limit access; they curate it.

They are like a top-notch concierge that directs you to where you want to be.

See Why Categories for Your Notes are a Good Idea.

Launches the Brain

The LYT framework is filled with your personalized reminders of important categories of knowledge and their key terms. It helps kickstart the brain—reducing the activation energy needed to start thinking and connecting ideas.

Enhances Note Retrieval

Note retrieval becomes easier when you're staring at many possible access points: your main categories, contexts, maps, and tags. [^2] Notes become tethered like Wolverine:

Alleviates Overwhelm

MOCs Overview (MOCs) are your key to adding structure to the chaos, especially as your digital library grows. The ability to sense the tickle of anxiety and build an MOC is oftentimes the difference between a finished project and an abandoned one.

Encourages Relational, Positional Thinking

Making a Map of Content forces a rich, engaging relational battle between notes. Notes jockey for position in your brain, and each placement by you embeds them with additional meaning.

Aids in Linking with Pre-built Contexts

Your 10 or so main maps provide a pre-built latticework upon which to hang your new notes. It's a personalized classification system for your digital knowledge. Tethering to these hub-like maps vastly enhance long-term storage and retrieval.

Future-Proofs for your Future Self

There are months that go by where I don't open my digital library. Before adopting plain text and adding structure, I would get anxiety when I would finally re-open it. Now, however, I don't get that anxiety because I have my trusty Home note, Maps of Content and other fluid ways of categorizing and retrieving info. In no time, I'm back up to speed and off to the races.

Improves Memory

![[Reps#^dbdd21]]

Because of the well-traveled structural pathways that the Home note and Maps of Content encourage, my recall has improved. This makes sense because of three important factors that working with "linked frameworks" encourages:

  1. Reps - I'm constantly returning to a home view and then re-launching into new directions in my digital library.
  2. Conceptual Thinking - Making MOCs forces you to really consider the unique qualities of the thought you're holding and how it relates to other thoughts. This conceptual [[thinking through linking]] strengthens neural connections—making Cobwebs into Cables.
  3. Spatial Context - Your main MOCs are numbered and always at the top of the sidebar (when sorted A to Z). This way, they act as a spatial map. We remember things much better when we have a spatial constellation of related things.

Increases Satisfaction

We spend too much time with our notes not to experience joy with them. ==LYT structures allow you to fly around your digital library with the deftness of a surgeon and the joy of a chimpanzee swinging from branch to branch.==

%%


Did you know this article is LIVE online right now, but no one online can see these hidden "comments" except us :)

Wow, this note uses at least 18 different formatting methods:

internal links, embeds, headers, dividers, emphasis with bolds, italics, bold+italics, lists, images, piped links, external links, blockquotes, inline code, tables, strikethroughs, highlights, footnotes, and comments. 

The first three benefits as a table

Benefit Description
Provides Reliability Reliable places to ground thoughts
Provides Flexibility Fluid frameworks don't limit, they curate
Launches the Brain Jump Kickstarts your brain

%%


Next

The benefits are exhaustive—and we haven't even talked about Idea Emergence!

But you may still be asking: Is LYT For Me?

[^1]: Do not underestimate the peace of mind that comes from a reliable, dependable digital library. Being unable to access something you know you have is basically a form of "Digital Dementia".
[^2]: I like to make my digital library super robust. That means I have several avenues built-in to re-discover a note. I find this process of "connecting to conceptual cousins" further cements each idea into my memory. It sort of tethers things in place like Wolverine, or if you prefer, like a bug caught on a spider web.

Bill Russell (kit)

id : 20220829221735
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: People MOC
tags:: #people
dates:: 1934 - 2022

Bill Russell

Wiki

William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and a 12-time NBA All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career.[2] Russell and Henri Richard of the National Hockey League are tied for the record of the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league.[3] Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He led the San Francisco Dons to two consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956,[4] and he captained the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[5]

Despite his limitations on offense, as Russell averaged 15.1 points per game, his rebounding, defense, and leadership made him one of the dominant players of his era.[6][7][8][9] Standing at 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall, with a 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) arm span,[10][11] his shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' dominance during his career. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities, and he led the NBA in rebounds four times, had a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds,[12] and remains second all time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than 50 rebounds in a game.[13]

Russell played in the wake of black pioneers Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, and he was the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. He also served a three-season (1966–69) stint as player-coach for the Celtics, becoming the first black coach in the NBA and the first to win a championship.[14] In 2011, Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments on the court and in the civil rights movement.[15]

Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, was one of the founding inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. He was selected into the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996,[5] one of only four players to receive all three honors, and selected into the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. In 2009, the NBA renamed the NBA Finals MVP Award in his honor.[16] In 2021, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a second time for his coaching career.[17] Shortly after his death in 2022, the NBA retired Russell's jersey number 6 league-wide, becoming the only player in NBA history to receive the honor.[18]

BOAT notes

id : 20220831182520
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

BOAT notes

A BOAT note is a "Block of Atomic Thought" floating alone in an empty ocean... 🚤 ^706f5c

  • Evergreen notes are well-linked, fully formed members of society.
  • BOAT notes are teenagers: still growing and forming a unique personality.

In this way:

  • Living, evergreen notes = adults
  • BOAT notes = teenagers

Traits of a BOAT note

  • Less defined
  • Few links (if any)
  • Newly created (or just not fully formed)

Intuitive definition (yes it's very subjective):

  • A BOAT note is any note that feels less than 33% finished (actualized).

Lifespan of a BOAT note

  • Form: In the sea of your "primordial idea soup", you quickly make a note. You know it has way more potential to grow, but right now you just want to roughly sketch it out. You have formed a new BOAT note.
  • Float: A BOAT note floats in your digital library not fully-formed, but full of potential.
  • Grow: But it's not evergreen until these BOAT notes make landfall and grow (connecting with other notes while sharpening its argument).

Why the distinction matters

  • Just like a blank page is intimidating, so is the prospect of having to create beautiful evergreen notes from scratch.
  • By having an intermediate step, you can feel more freedom to quickly form new ideas as you have them—without worrying about perfecting them.
  • Later, it's easy (and fun) to return to these half-formed notes and tinker with them. It's an organic process. You don't have to force anything. You just find the BOATs that you're drawn to and start building them up (adding definitions, examples, and links).
  • Looking for easy wins? Just look at your BOAT notes and start growing them.
  • In this way, you have a system for the incremental development of living, evergreen notes.

Bottom-up thinking

id : 20220627023753
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]
tags:: #on/thinking

Bottom-up thinking

Bottom-up thinking is where your thinking is driven by encountering ideas and connecting/developing them organically.

PRO: Allows for emergent thinking.
CON: Can feel a little too chaotic at times.

See: [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]

Cabin

id : 20220828213435
type : undefined
keywords :

Cabin 🪵

The cabin is my epicenter.

It's where I go to ground myself 🪨.

It's where I go to truly orient myself 🧭 .

And it's where I visit for spiritual centering 🧲.

I am connected here ䷤.

And I am in no rush to leave...

But when I am...

I might hike over to the Life Map.

%% tags:: #map %%

Carl Sagan (kit)

id : 20220909053959
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: People MOC
tags:: #people
dates:: 1934 - 1996

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan has earned my highest praise out of basically anyone I know.

When I think of Carl Sagan, I think of [[20220825014351|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (kit)]]. What Carl Sagan did for my love of the cosmos, [[20220825014351|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (kit)]] did for my love of Flow. Both have enriched my life.

  • That reminds me...
  • It's similar because...
  • It's different because...
  • It's important because...

The [[1980 📺 Cosmos - A Personal Voyage (Carl Sagan)|1980 show "Cosmos"]] was an internal inflection point for me.

Extra

Pale Blue Dot: Chapter 3, The Great Demotions

Sagan calls the "Great Demotions" moments in scientific history that downgraded humanity's place in the universe. Galileo helped to show that the Earth was not the only "world" along with it not being the center of the universe, bringing about another great demotion. Other great demotions have occurred, however, such as our discovery that we do not live in the only galaxy, or that our galaxy is not at the center of the universe or that no other star has planets. Today we have even discovered planets orbiting other stars.

Cosmos Quotes

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

Cassandra

id : 20220829212613
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Some Greek Allusions

Cassandra

A Cassandra is a person who continually predicts misfortune, but is not believed.

"Beware the Ides of March" relates to Cassandra.

Blind Guardian's "And then there was silence" has an allusion to Cassandra.

Cause and Effect

id : 20220724182056
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept #note/develop🍃

Cause and Effect

I am, inevitable.

alts
I am the song of the universe.

Wiki

Causality is, by which one process or state, a cause, contributes to the production of another process or state, an effect, where the cause is partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is partly dependent on the cause. In general, a process has many causes, which are also said to be causal factors for it, and all lie in its past.

Changing a habit is really about replacing a routine

id : 20220505220025
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Defining a habit
tags:: #on/habit

Changing a habit is really about replacing a routine

Duhigg's book, while full of the requisite filler of long pop-science stories, breaks ground on providing a simple habit formation process.[^1]

Habits are incredibly resilient: in some cases, people with extensive brain damage who could not even remember where they lived could still adhere to their old habits and pick up new ones. This is because learning and maintaining habits happens in the basal ganglia, a part of your brain that can function normally even if the rest of your brain is damaged.

Unfortunately, this resilience means that even if you kick a bad habit, like smoking, you will always be at risk of relapsing.

Habits are simple cue-routine-reward loops that save effort and therefore endure. They are Natural Selection in action. See: Habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage.

Habits stick because they create craving.

  • golden rule of changing any habit: don’t resist craving, redirect it
    • do this by keeping the cue and the reward and just replacing the routine.

What Keystone Habits are really about, and probably why I've always struggled with the term, [^1] is because behavioral change is really driven by small wins—ie early victories that are relatively easy to reach. Therefore it's "small wins" and not "keystone habits" that help you viscerally believe that change is possible.

What Duhigg—and over 500 research articles who referenced Baumeister's work—got wrong: "Willpower is the most important keystone habit." No, it's not. This finding, which is false, directed my attentions for the next several years, only to realize that willpower is way, way overrated and the studies were rotten (looking at you Baumeister!).

Following habits is not only a key part of our lives but also a key part of organizations and companies. All habits comprise a cue-routine-reward loop, and the easiest way to change this is to substitute the routine for something else while keeping the cue and reward the same. Achieving lasting change in life is difficult, but it can be done by focusing on important keystone habits such as willpower.

[^1]: Too simple perhaps, because in making the process super sticky with only 3 steps, he left out an important fourth step between Cue and Routine: Craving. James Clear picked up on this too and made it explicit in How Atomic Habits fit into the conversation on habits

Charting out habit cycles in my life circa 2013

id : 20220829195023
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit #log/journal

Charting out habit cycles in my life circa 2013

The following is an example of me considering the habitual cues in my life that I wanted to control in March of 2013.

MORNING

Mini Workout

  • Cues: Not thinking, just getting out of bed and going to the bathroom.
  • Routine: Proprioception Balance: 30 secs both sides
    • Joint Warm-up: Ankles, knees, hips, elbows, shoulders, neck [Alt: Walk 5-10 min]
    • 25 Bird Dog/Fire Hydrants / 25 Retraction Pushups / 25 Abs: Plank Spiders
    • 25 Bodyweight Squats/Lunges / Headstand 1 min
    • Visualize a great day with good standing posture
  • Reward: Early morning feeling of accomplishment, self-control, and endorphins.

Breakfast

  • Cues: Finishing good standing posture visualization
  • Routine: Prepare Greek Yogurt, Almonds, Cinnamon / Have vitamins, stimulant
  • Reward: Satiation of hunger. Healthy and smart start.

Ask ?s: Day Orientation, Goals, and Journal

  • Cues: Bring food to my room. Full body stretch before sitting down = Ask ?s
  • Routine: Open up a New Note in Evernote / Start asking questions and answering them. Talk out loud for some of it.
  • Reward: Clarity, a sense of purpose, and the alignment of priorities and energy.

EVENING

Biz: Reflect and Plan with Team

  • Cues: Approaching 5pm or the end of the main work day.
  • Routine: Recap what I've accomplished today. What I didn't. What the next steps are. / Connect with the team and go over the day. / Plan the next day.
  • Reward: Clarity, a sense of purpose, and the alignment of priorities and energy.

Workout

  • Cues: Emotional sense of finishing the work day. Put on workout clothes. Time is around 5pm. Sometimes with others.
  • Routine: Lucia Stance 2-5 min
  • Reward: Feeling of self-control, confidence, endorphins, and a vibrant and healthy body; and renewed energy for the rest of the day.

NIGHT

Lucia Stance

  • Cue: Emotional sense of finishing the day. By myself. Night.
  • Routine: Lucia Stance 2-5 min
  • Reward: Sense of Control and willpower.

Reflect and Plan

  • Cues: Finishing the Lucia.
  • Routine: Reflect: Winning Moments / Journal, Muse / Chart next day / Ask ?'s
  • Reward: Accomplishment, growth, a sense of cementing memories.

Stretch & Yoga Stretch

  • Cues: Finishing planning next day. Standing up.
  • Routine: quick full body / shoulder stand, cradle, wheel barrow, sitting stretch, headstand
  • Reward: Satiation of hunger. Healthy and smart start.

PMR & light Visualization

  • Cues: Finishing headstand. Lay down in Savasana.
  • Routine: PMR the body for 5 min / lightly visualize the next day / record any floating or lingering thoughts.
  • Reward: A sense of preparation and confidence.

  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2013-03-10

Chunking

id : 20220829213940
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Deliberate Practice
tags:: #on/memory

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Chunking

It takes years of focused reps to chunk like an expert.

Something tells me Tom Brady and Cam Newton see different things. Cam Newton might be 11 defenders. Something tells me Tom Brady sees larger movements and patterns in the defense that he can't even articulate—but he sees them and makes the right read.

That's how chunking intersects with expertise, intuition, and Deliberate Practice. Speaking more to [[20220825014254|K. Anders Ericsson (kit)]]'s work with chess masters, Ericsson noticed that chess masters retrieved knowledge from long term memory around meaningful game patterns that novices did not see or understand. It takes years of focused reps to chunk like an expert.

In [[20220813003302|Douglas R. Hofstadter]]'s speech [[20220831002647|2009 - Analogy as Core - Hofstadter (talk)]], he says (paraphrased):

![[2009 - Analogy as Core - Hofstadter (talk)#^ffe150]]

George A. Miller

George A. Miller, one of the top scientists of the 20th century, in his classic 1956 paper, "[[The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two]]," coined the terms "working memory" and "chunking."  He discovered that the number of digits people could hold in mind before their memory overloaded was remarkably consistent across all people.  So pervasive was this number that his famous article opened with, “My problem is that I’ve been persecuted by an integer.”
https://www.parentcorticalmass.com/2013/09/what-is-chunking.html

Wiki

"In cognitive psychology, chunking is a process by which individual pieces of an information set are broken down and then grouped together in a meaningful whole.

The chunks by which the information is grouped is meant to improve short-term retention of the material, thus bypassing the limited capacity of working memory."

Cobwebs into Cables

id : 20220825023735
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #concept

Cobwebs into Cables

Turning cobwebs into cables is a metaphor for strengthening neural connections through getting Reps.

"Neurons that fire together wire together” - Hebb's Rule

Collective Intelligence

id : 20220829235846
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Collective Intelligence MOC]] (not included in the LYT Kit)

Collective Intelligence

Later...How would I define this??

Wiki

Collective intelligence is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiology, political science and in context of mass peer review and crowdsourcing applications.

Commentary on the silliness of trying to maintain an A-Z list of MOCs

id : 20220825083315
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/PKM

Commentary on the silliness of trying to maintain an A-Z list of MOCs

For those that want to maintain an alphabetical "Map of Maps" list, check this out. The below list was in alphabetical order a long time ago. But as I make sense of the world, I constantly tweak filenames. So now look at how out of order it has become.

This is why you should just use the tag #MOC for your alphabetical list instead.

  • Meta PKM
  • [[Greco-Roman MOC]]
  • [[Art MOC]]
  • [[Confucianism MOC]]
  • [[Cooking MOC]]
  • [[Cosmology MOC]]
  • [[Football MOC]]
  • [[History MOC]]
  • [[Building Homes MOC]]
  • Language MOC
    • [[Chinese Language MOC]]
    • [[English Language MOC]]
    • [[French Language MOC]]
    • [[Latin Language MOC]]
  • [[Literature MOC]]
  • [[Rhetoric MOC]]
  • [[Stoicism MOC]]
  • [[20220829214154|Philosophy MOC (kit)]]
  • [[Vocals MOC]]
  • [[Words MOC]]

Commonplace Book

id : 20220829213945
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Sources MOC
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

[[Source Starmap 🔭]] | Commonplace Book | [[Bookshelf 📚]]

Commonplace Book 📖

Welcome to your "commonplace book" of interesting tidbits you've collected. Try clicking on #source/quote to see a couple results.

NOTE: Since I removed the Quotes Pack from the LYT Kit, most of the tags below won't populate results.

| [[Figures MOC]] |

| #quote | #quote/100 | #quote/250 | #quote/Me |

Health

#on/Health | #on/Nutrition | #on/Diet | #on/Exercise

Life & Death

#on/Living | #on/Dying | #on/Legacy

People

#on/People | #on/Leadership

Personal Development & Virtues

#on/attitude #on/belief #on/Courage
#on/Action #on/Doing #on/Starting
#on/Perseverance #on/Toughness
#on/Reps #on/Practice #on/Excellence #on/Luck
#on/Integrity

Planning and Strategy

#on/Goals

Unsorted

#on/Constraints

Complexity (defn)

id : 20220825051121
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220825051121|Systems MOC (kit)]]
tags:: #on/systems

Complexity (defn)

Complexity is basically how many units of information we’re looking at in a given system.

In the LYT frameworks, the more links, the more complexity a note has.

How notes gain complexity mirrors the way we as humans gain complexity over the years: by experiencing new things that impact us and change who we are becoming.

Complexity relates to [[20220807025816|Divergence (defn)]] and [[20220627023753|Convergence (defn)]].

Concept Expansion

id : 20220829215321
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Concept Expansion

Take a word, any word, and just start using it in different ways. Each new instance expands our sense of the word.

Here's [[20220831002647|2009 - Analogy as Core - Hofstadter (talk)]]'s example of shadow: a shadow from the sun…then a snow shadow…then a rain shadow…a familial shadow…in the shadow of a big event…the gulf stream. Suddenly instead of a tree casting a shadow on the ground, it's England casting a shadow on the northern parts of Scandinavia.

This is a bigger concept than first meets the eye. It's a sneaky rhetorical device that's used all the time. Be careful not to overuse it yourself. A good example of being caught up in your own overuse is someone's insistence on force-fitting the term "Barbell Method" to describe reading something once lightly, and a second time more deeply. It stretches the definition so much as to befuddle.

[[Rhetoric - Redefinition Strategy]] - If by old, you mean XYZ -Reagan
Concept Expansion can be used as a nice rhetorical trick

[[Politics - Co-opt what Freedom means]] - concept expansion

"Repeated analogies expand concepts" - [[20220831002647|2009 - Analogy as Core - Hofstadter (talk)]] #source/quote

Concepts MOC

id : 20220923162736
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

Concepts MOC

A concept is a pattern, truth, or mechanism that has been given a name.
Just like the primordial goop that collided together billions of years ago to spark life on earth, so do these conceptual collisions spark exciting and diverse ideas.

Daily reminders of powerful concepts

Why not string out these ideas into paragraphs? What a way to unearth hidden connections!

Starting some days, I'll consider how to apply three strategic mental models: OODA Loop, Levels of Magnification, and Refraction Thinking.

For my work as an editor/AE in TV, I know to improve my craft means the steady application of getting Reps, creating the conditions for Flow, which involves environmental Forcing Functions, and considering when I can multitask Shadow Clone.

Natural Selection is one of the mega-concepts. It helps me decipher the signal from the noise through the mechanism of considering the Lindy Effect, along with Hormesis and Antifragility—and also more broadly Cause and Effect. This reminds me of Concept Expansion.

In times of stress it helps me to broaden my perspective and consider concepts like: Yin and Yang, Synthesis, Seasons, and the Mountain Top Water Drop. Dealing with folks in the entertainment industry—and just throughout life really—there are plenty of instances to consider ways to handle ego and aggression. The most fascinating is [[20220512053552|No-Face]] from Spirited Away, which leads to The Id. Aikido is good to remember.

For more avenues to re-expanding my narrowed perspective, try to revisit the [[20220512053748|Rubik's Cube]], or pull from [[20220824213329|Munger's Mental Models]].


Want to more deeply understand the flexible power of MOCs? Check out [[20220702022505|MOCs encourage flexible non-destructive thinking]] where you will see the same concepts above, in different ways.


LYT Vision

Activate "LYT Vision" to resurface thoughts in context. When you twirl this open, it's like you are putting on night vision goggles: you see things hidden in the shadows.

Unrequited notes

These notes point directly to this note. But this note doesn't point back.
This is the strongest contextual query.

[!HINT]+ This data view 🔬 only renders in the free downloadable version.
If you are viewing this note on Obsidian Publish, you won't be able to see the magic below unless you download the kit.
Note: If you can see the list below, you have already downloaded the LYT Kit.

LIST

FROM [Concepts MOC](#20220923162736){title="Concepts MOC" onclick=openRecord(20220923162736) .record-link}
and !outgoing([Concepts MOC](#20220923162736){title="Concepts MOC" onclick=openRecord(20220923162736) .record-link})
and -#map

SORT file.link asc

Possibly relevant, currently unmentioned notes

These notes have the tag #concept, and are not mentioned above—but could be relevant.
This is a nicely fuzzy contextual query.

[!HINT]+ This data view 🔬 only renders in the free downloadable version.
If you are viewing this note on Obsidian Publish, you won't be able to see the magic below unless you download the kit.
Note: If you can see the list below, you have already downloaded the LYT Kit.

LIST 

FROM #concept
and !outgoing([Concepts MOC](#20220923162736){title="Concepts MOC" onclick=openRecord(20220923162736) .record-link})

SORT file.link asc

Back to: Home

Conditions of Flow

id : 20220829222129
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC

Conditions of Flow

The Three Major Conditions of Flow

The three conditions of flow, as described by Mihaly are:

  1. Clear proximal (nearby) goals
  2. Clear and immediate feedback
  3. A balance between perceived challenge and skill

More Detailed Conditions of Flow

"Of course, this is not to say that these are the only factors that affect the degree to which one becomes involved in an activity." - Mihaly et al

They then mention the level of importance ([[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]]) to a person and how their actions in the moment align with their character and values ([[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]] and [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]]). Mentioned elsewhere by Mihaly et al are the additional negative factors of distractions ([[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]]) and low self-esteem ([[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]]).

Related: [[Flow, Insights, and Acting cannot be forced]] (not included in the LYT Kit)


Let's look at those three conditions of flow again, this time, relating them to major factors controlling them and giving you the levers needed to master them.

  1. Clear proximal goals — Right now, what am I doing and what do I need to do?
    • This is all about [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]]. Are you clear on your direction? It's worth noting that even if this activity isn't part of your big goals in life, you can still be in flow as long as you are clear on what you're doing in the moment. Essentially, you are clear on your next steps, your micro-direction, your micro-goals.
  2. Clear and immediate feedback — How am I doing?
    • Clarity of [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]] is the biggest factor here.
  3. A balance between perceived challenge and skill — If I'm not in flow, what can I do to help induce it?
    • Conceptually, this is the holy grail. Practically, you gotta deftly adjust your current situation. Technically, there are specific "recipes" to use that will help. Balancing Challenge and Skill is the most important condition because it's the result of every element that dictates quality experience: [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]], [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]], [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]], and [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]].

Now that we have a clear list of the conditions of flow, we need to relate them to the Four Factors of Flow.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2012
    • created:: 2012
    • revised:: 2014
    • revised:: 2016
    • revised:: 2019

Convergence (defn)

id : 20220627023753
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]
tags:: #on/systems

Convergence (defn)

Convergence is basically when things become unified.

Convergence relates directly to [[20220807025816|Divergence (defn)]].

Cybertron Theme

id : 20220829214012
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Mode Theme
tags:: #on/design
dates:: 2020 - 2022

[!NOTE]+ Should I use Cybertron or LYT Mode?
You should use the LYT Mode Theme.

Cybertron has been replaced by it.

LYT Mode is being actively developed.

Meanwhile, Cybertron will fulfill its destiny to truly become "retro".

Cybertron

This is my true love. You will either love this theme, or avoid it at all costs.

Although it’s inspired by the retro craze, it’s crazy how useful it actually is. I get an incredible amount of work accomplished in it. As the creator of Cybertron once said:

I do both my creative and analytical work in Cybertron.

It derives inspiration from:

  1. Dynalist
  2. Cyberpunk 2077
  3. Synthwave
  4. Keanu Reeves
  5. The Terminator

Cool Aspects

While stylized, I actually find Cybertron to be extremely practical. It seems to encourage creativity.

Notables
  • Dark mode only
  • Bold has its own color
  • Italics has its own color
  • It's preferred that you use the plugin Sliding Panes

Testing it out

I use Bold Words for calling out nouny things (most of the time), and I'll use italics for drawing emphasis to words (nothing out of the ordinary there).

Other things you might want to know

  • I wouldn't normally use so many categories because they can quickly get in the way, but I'm trying to show you the theme, so don't judge!
And then there was a cassette player

Working your way around bumpy bumps and stumpy stumps, your foot knocks against something. "That's not a rock," is your first thought, followed quickly by, "That's the sound of cheap plastic!" You look down and find a dusty cassette player. You've heard about these from your grandpa. After some time (longer than you'd like to admit), you find the eject button, and study the tape inside. On the back side, scrawled in blue pen, are the words: "In case of a focus emergency". You put the tape back in and press play.


Daily Notes

id : 20220904203254
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map/view

Daily Notes

A daily note practice is great for many people. Try it out. Just never feel obligated to make a daily note every day. But do use them. They are great for a mixture of uses, such as:

  • planning your day
  • jotting down ideas
  • taking meeting notes
  • reflecting on your day

The only things I have found I care to log consistently I have given tags:

  • #log/event
  • #log/journal
  • #log/meeting

While I prefer to click on the Calendar (over in the upper right usually), below is a simple view of the latest daily notes—including a few from the future:

list
from "Calendar" and -#on/readme 
sort file.name desc

Back to Home

Data view notes (defn)

id : 20220831002818
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Glossary
tags:: #on/PKM

Data view notes (defn) 🔬

You requested the latest TPS reports?

Do you ever wish you could save a search? You can. Saved searches are called "queries".

Data view notes are notes with specific sets of queries using the Dataview community plugin. Such as Inbox. As you can see, Data view notes give you viewports to filter, review, and analyze the information you are accreting.

On your idea spaceship, data views are your various viewports.

Armed with a few data views, you can make confident decisions because you know you are getting accurate information.

What's the difference between MOCs and Data views

While [[20220506040841|MOCs (defn)]] are for active, generative thinking, the value of data views come from how they passively provide you with updated views of information.

You can analyze or act on that information; but information is worthless without putting meaningful context around it.

  • Use MOCs to generate insights
  • Use data views to analyze information

Using a series of queries to build data views is an advanced action. But many people want to learn because—in sage hands—queries are crazy-powerful.

Defining a habit

id : 20220706191536
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit

Defining a habit

A habit is a mirror, it gives what you give it—and what you were given is what you'll give. It's the immediate expression a Feedback Loop.

Habits carry a ton of hidden inertia. To change a habit requires conscious, deliberate effort.

As you attempt to change a habit, you have to expend effort to reroute the train. Changing a habit is really about replacing a routine.

Deliberate Practice

id : 20220829194915
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/Reps

Deliberate Practice

Train to improve.

Sources

Performance Psychology

dates:: 2011
people:: Duncan R.D.Mascarenhas*Nickolas C.Smith†
URL:: Link

Deliberate practice is defined as being effortful in nature, with the main goal of personal improvement of performance rather than enjoyment, and is often performed without immediate reward.

From: Performance Psychology, 2011


Sports and Creativity

dates:: 2011
people:: D. Memmert, in Encyclopedia of Creativity (Second Edition), 2011
URL:: Link

Deliberate Practice

The term ‘deliberate practice’ refers to targeted and task-centered training programs based on instructions.


The Expert Performance Approach and Deliberate Practice

dates:: 2012
people:: K. Anders Ericsson, Jerad H. Moxley, in Handbook of Organizational Creativity, 2012
URL:: Link

Deliberate practice as we have described it can be thought of as something clearly different from most types of experience in the workplace and everyday life.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2011

Deploy Spaces with the MAPS folder structure

id : 20220829194806
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829214529|LYT Space (kit)]]
tags:: #on/PKM

Deploy Spaces with the MAPS folder structure

When you add links to folder-based PKM, you need MOCs. It's actually quite simple. For every space you have in your life, you just deploy the MAPS folder structure:

  • MOCs
  • Areas
  • Projects
  • Support notes

  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2022-05-03

Dimensions of Reality

id : 20220825051121
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829214154|Philosophy MOC (kit)]]
tags:: #concept

Dimensions of Reality

What if you thought two dimensions was the entirety of reality?

This premise that "there is something more" always strikes a chord in me. It's why I resonate with [[20220829214358|Plato's Cave]], The Matrix, Flatland...even The Truman Show! Bring on the existential angst I say!

Some of the themes found in these works are:

  • Knowing vs Knowing
  • the choice of liberation
  • the difficulties with that choice
  • Violent reaction of having beliefs challenged
  • choosing chains (the safe) - cypher

Direction (re Flow)

id : 20220512052444
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Direction

Think of Direction like "Goals." It's great to have goals, but there is a point of Diminishing Return. Too many goals creates too many Directions. Think of the [[20220829224910|Abbe Faria's sage advice]] that too many goals make them all evaporate into "a thousand follies."

Subsets of Direction

  • Goals — Goals basically define the Direction you're going to take.
  • Virtues — At the core of every decision we make are invisible values. The values of highest importance create your virtues, which are your most valuable abilities in which to be really skilled. It's important to define your own Virtues. I have my Four Virtues.

Main Factors Governing Direction

  • Nature — Your DNA predisposes you to desire some things more than others
  • Nurture — Your environment and experiences substantially dictate the possible paths you might desire to take. This includes your level of Exposure or Awareness to different possible paths.
  • Level of Clarity — If you're not clear, the confusion will sap your confidence and assured progress
  • Amount of Directions — Too many dilutes your energies
  • Desire — Your Enthusiasm towards a Direction—regardless of whether it stems from creative passion or financial practicality or dire necessity.

Causes of Poor Direction

  • Lack of Clarity — You're confused. Confusion blunts action and Enthusiasm; it softens Attention.
  • Too Many Bright, Shiny Objects — Too many simultaneous Directions lead to the accomplishment of few—with a lot of wasted energy "evaporated in a thousand follies."

Solutions to Poor Direction

  • Clarity — Being clear on what you what and what your next steps are, well, that's how you get into Flow, among other reasons.
  • Simplicity — Less is more. You will have more confidence and more easily sustained Enthusiasm when there isn't the pull of too many simultaneous goals.
  • Ruthless Essentialism — Basically, Saying No to some goals so that you have the Time/Energy/Commitment required for the goals you said "yes" to.

Divergence (defn)

id : 20220807025816
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]
tags:: #on/systems

Divergence (defn)

Divergence is basically when things become unique.

Divergence relates directly [[20220627023753|Convergence (defn)]].

Double down and keep collecting.

id : 20220506024221
type : undefined
keywords :

As you keep gazing into the Palantir of online Twitter gurus, telling you how to gain followers and social prestige by following "exactly what they did", you realize there is one thing you can do with all that information you've clipped: Regurgitate it on Twitter!

What started as well-intentioned sense-making has been corrupted into content regurgitation. Your orcs virtual followers grow in number, but at what cost, Saruman?

Douglas R. Hofstadter

id : 20220813003302
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Chunking
tags:: #people
dates:: 1945 -

Douglas R. Hofstadter

While he has been in the public light for decades, my first concentrated exposure to Hofstadter was his 2009 Presidential Lecture: [[20220831002647|2009 - Analogy as Core - Hofstadter (talk)]]. It's clear he's a fun and fascinating thinker.

Wiki

Douglas Richard Hofstadter is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics.

His 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid won both the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and a National Book Award (at that time called The American Book Award) for Science.

Efforts

id : 20220831202058
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

Efforts 🏋️

Efforts allow ideas to breath. Projects smother them.

You can use this data view to compile any note you tag with: #effort

TABLE WITHOUT ID
 file.link as Efforts,
 rank as "Rank"

FROM #effort

SORT rank desc


Why "Efforts" are liberating

Thinking of your efforts as "efforts"—and not projects—is liberating and empowering because:

  • The definition is clear
    • Efforts require some sort of effort. When you tag a note as an effort, you are letting yourself know that some sort of effort is intended.
  • The definition is not too clear
    • Efforts have linguistic wiggle room. Terms like "projects" are too narrow in scope to define the breadth of what an effort can be. This ambiguity is a feature, not a bug.

Learn more about efforts:

Elden Ring

id : 20220831003253
type : undefined
keywords :

tags:: #note/boat🚤

Elden Ring

Emergence (defn)

id : 20220627023753
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]
tags:: #on/systems

Emergence (defn)

Emergence refers to the existence or formation of collective behaviors — what parts of a system do together that they would not do alone.

To quickly understand this amazing concept, I try to dumb it down and say “Emergence is adding complexity.” Or “Emergence is when the new whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

If I was alone in a room, but now I am talking with friends, we are at a higher level of complexity.

  • Me alone equals Emergence Level 1
  • Me with friends equals Emergence Level 2

Energy (re Flow)

id : 20220829215142
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Attention is what the mind is focused on—and what it has been focused on over the recent past (the past 72 hours is simple way to look at it). Everything that enters the mind in the past 72 hours affects the next hour of thought. That's what it's so important to Guard and Guide Your Mind wisely.

Guard what enters your mind, and what stays in the mind. Reduce distractions. Reduce attentional switching.

Subsets of Attention

  • Focus — The ability to maintain focus is of crucial importance in any aspect of modern living. Without focus, life drifts from stimuli to stimuli, with very little consistent [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]].
  • Residual Attention — Your attention isn't just about what you are thinking about right now; it's more so composed of everything that's entered your mind over past 72 hours.
    • Similar Keywords: Attentional Residue, Echo, Resonating, Ripples, Shadows, Reflections, Glimmers, Whispers, Deja Vu, Attention Robbers, Attentional Switching, Distraction Radiation, Distraction Amnesia, Continuity of Thought

Main Factors Governing Attention

  • Intensity and Frequency of Distractions
    • Surroundings and Environment
  • Quality of Diet

Causes of Poor Attention

  • Distractions — Distractions come in many forms and factors. Below is a list of major sources of distraction to safeguard against:
  • [[Poor Diet]] — Sugar makes people act impulsively; they become more susceptible to distractions. Grains can cause brain fog to lowers mood and Enthusiasm. Both dramatically raise blood sugar levels causing the secretion of Insulin. The resulting fall of blood glucose levels causes hunger, irritability, and energy crashes.
  • Average Diet — Even an average diet can still have several micro-nutrient deficiencies that can be the cause of headaches, lower [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]] levels, mood swings, a lack of enthusiasm.
  • Lack of [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]]
  • Lack of [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]]

Solutions to Poor Attention

  • Reducing Distractions in Intensity and Frequency
  • Having a Good Diet

Enthusiasm (re Flow)

id : 20220505230700
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Enthusiasm

Recipes to Help a Lack of Enthusiasm

Reconnect with something that excites you that you are working towards

Maybe it's the next promotion, or a vacation, or the wonderful feeling of getting out of debt. Keep that powerful goal in mind. Strengthen your [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]].

evaporated in a thousand follies''

id : 20220829224910
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]]
tags:: #on/Constraints #source/quote/100

Dantes asks,

"What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?”

The wise Abbe replies,

"Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies.

Captivity brings light to the treasures of the human intellect, just as compression is needed to explode gunpowder.

From the collision of clouds electricity is produced; from electricity, lightning; from lightning, illumination." - [[20220829225451|1844 - The Count of Monte Cristo (book)]]

My notes

Captivity, compression, collision... concentration, density, tightly-packed

light, spark, explode, electricity, lightning, illumination

The tightly-packed collision of clouds produces intense electricity in the form of lightning; and from lightning comes illumination. The same is true for ideas.

I mash up this concept from [[Alexandre Dumas]] with the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland in my LYT workshop lesson focused on Thought Collisions.

Over at MOCs are Dialectics, we continue marinating in this pressure cooker of thought.

Evergreen notes

id : 20220828192537
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #map #on/PKM

Evergreen notes

Note-takers “churn and burn” through their notes. They take them for a specific short-term (“just-in-time”) purpose—like a test or a project. When the milestone concludes, the notes lose their value. This type of note-taking doesn’t accumulate long-term value.

Note-makers “know and grow” with their knowledge. Instead of losing value, note-makers create living notes that are able to grow in value and evolve over time.

Properties of living, evergreen notes

While evergreen notes are just regular notes, they have principles that generate value.

  • Clear and concise - The title for evergreen notes should be a clear title or statement.
    • As you form this one-liner, you clarify and sharpen your thinking. It’s like a mini-thesis. This process naturally enforces an atomic note size.
    • Don’t stress about making atomic notes. Follow the Goldilocks rule: Not too short, not too long.
    • You will know if it’s too long if you have trouble linking it because it’s saying many different things.
  • Own words - Writing in your own words forces you to deeply think about what you’re trying to say.
    • You will find this is a forcing function to naturally draw out your unique perspective.
  • Linked - Your living, evergreen notes should have links to other notes.
    • You will naturally make links if you’ve made clear notes in your own words.
  • Non-static - As you encounter new things in life, you can re-write or re-factor your notes to capture more meaning and value.
    • This means evergreen notes become living entities—gaining in insights and complexity as more time passes.

Benefits of note-making, linking your thinking, and evergreen notes

Cultivating a growing mass evergreen notes opens up a powerful way of connecting ideas and generating insights.


Want to make more of these kind of notes? See [[20220905000723|On the process of note-making]]

References

Evergreen notes—a term coined and developed by Andy Matuschak—are a digital evolution of the "atomic" notes that Niklas Luhmann pioneered.

Evergreen notes (defn)

id : 20220829194749
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Evergreen notes
tags:: #on/PKM

Evergreen notes (defn)

Evergreen notes are usually centered on a single idea and written mostly in your own words. They are not written in concrete. Instead, they naturally get revised and accrue more links over time.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020

Evergreen notes are antifragile

id : 20220830001109
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Evergreen notes
tags:: #on/PKM

Evergreen notes are antifragile

The most profound and revolutionary aspect of evergreen notes is that they exhibit Antifragility. The effects of this are hard to overstate.

In essence, that means they grow more valuable as they encounter more stressors. I.e. As you encounter related ideas, you link them to your existing evergreen note—even if they directly contradict your existing note.

Each link, if made deliberately, is adding value to the note. It's adding perspective, counter-arguments, supporting arguments, allusions to different domains, and so on.

Evergreen notes are things or statements about things

id : 20220831202419
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Evergreen notes
tags:: #on/PKM

Evergreen notes are things or statements about things

Many evergreen notes should be statements with a clear opinion. That's because it forces you to really think about what you're trying to say. However, these "clear opinions" need "clear things" to talk about! What are these "things"?

"THINGS" like:

  • Concepts: which can and should stand on their own
  • Known Things: "The magna carta was signed in 1215"
  • Standards: Things with a pre-set language (whether that's programming, Things that follow a process, manuals, etc
    • examples include anything from mathematical formulas, to the basics of language, to the process of putting a bike together
  • *Definitions, terms, topics, persons, places, or generally any other nouns.

These THING-based notes will naturally spawn ideas of your own that have clear opinions (or statements). For example:

  • The note on the [[Magna Carta]] (Clear Thing) can then link to a personalized note titled [[No one is above the law]] (Clear Opinion), which could link to another note titled [[Protests can invoke radical change]] (Clear Opinion).
  • A note on [[Defining a variable]] (Clear Thing) can link to a personalized note on [[Understanding variables leads to higher level thinking]] (Clear Opinion).
  • A note on the concept [Like begets like](#20220829215344){title="Like begets like" onclick=openRecord(20220829215344) .record-link} (kinda both Clear Opinion and Fact) can link to the opinion [[The neural formation of habits are additive]] (Clear Opinion) and a bunch of other notes. See this example below:

In this way, Thing-based notes are sturdy dots that we can then connect to Opinion-based notes through the natural process of note-making.

This is one of my [[20220829215637|Strong opinions, weakly held]].


Extra commentary

There seem to be "things" and "opinion about things", and it's nice to have both. The "things" act as pillars of—or waypoints to—acquired knowledge. Guiding markers and reminders. The things are the latticework upon which our "opinions about things" can hang. I suspect a healthy PKM system needs a balance of both.

Evergreen notes compound in value over time

id : 20220829215553
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Evergreen notes
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Evergreen notes compound in value over time

When you follow a process for making evergreen notes, you naturally develop insights that compound in value over time. This is the result of the fact that Evergreen notes are antifragile.

The [[Benefits of linked thinking]] take time to see so it's important to [[20220829183036|Trust the process (kit)]].


All things being equal, no sane person would put their money in a zero interest account, if they could put their money in an account with compounding interest (See [[The Compound Effect]]). So why do that with one of the most valuable assets you possess: the ability to effectively remember and utilize your life learnings and experience.

Evergreen notes maximize reusability

id : 20220506181625
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Evergreen notes
tags:: #on/PKM

Evergreen notes maximize reusability

As the number of your evergreen notes grows over time, their value compounds into a priceless amalgamation of modular, agile thought-units.

This becomes apparent as you start making more domain-lateral connections. As you develop this ability—and enough time passed—you'll see how the same evergreen note can contribute to multiple projects over time. That's long-term reusable value.

It's worth noting that evergreen notes take more effort to write than regular notes, but they act as a reusable, evolving, and ever-contributing library of valuable insights that you take with you throughout your life—across projects, careers, and decades.


Continue on to Evergreen notes compound in value over time

Exploring Wim Hof's Breath Manipulation (kit)

id : 20220829194733
type : undefined
keywords :

tags:: #on/breathing
people:: Wim Hof

Exploring Wim Hof's Breath Manipulation (kit)

This is an interesting topic and I don't have definitive answers—I hope to learn more from the burgeoning research, but here's my long take...

PART 1

Before holding my breath, I forcefully breath in more than I breath out for around 50 breaths (sort of like hyperventilating). O2 levels increase. CO2 levels decrease. pH levels increase (and surprisingly stay higher than what’s normal even after breath-holding, which should negate a lot of the breath-holding worries, since I believe they are associated with pH drops.

O2:CO2 Ratio & pH Levels:

  • A normal ratio is 4:1 & pH: 7.40
  • During hyperventilation, the ratio goes up to 11:1 & pH: 7.70
  • During hypoventilation, the ratio goes down to 1:1 & pH: 7.50

Interesting note: Even after breath-holding, pH levels stay surprisingly higher than normal, which should negate a lot of the breath-holding worries, since I believe the detriments that are talked about are always associated with drops in pH. Hence, if pH stays above normal, all should be good. I’d love to get some expert opinions on this.

Lactate Levels:

  • A normal range is 0.5 - 1.5 mmol/L. The test subject’s baseline was 0.70.
  • During hyperventilation, it only increased to 1.15 mmol/L.
  • During hypoventilation, it lowered to 0.90 mmol/L.

For comparison a 15-45 second sprint shows lactate levels rising way up to 8-15 mmol/L. So, there is no worry for the minuscule rise in lactate levels from hyper-hypoventilation.

Benefit # 1: POSITIVE HORMONAL RESPONSE AND A (SUPPOSED) INCREASED IMMUNE SYSTEM.

This act stimulates the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline (just like taking a cold shower, which also forces us to hyperventilate a bit), and has been shown to benefit the immune system.

Benefit # 2: MINDFULNESS

Both conscious "over-breathing" and the conscious breath-holding act as a fast and simple form of mindfulness for me, getting me out of racing thoughts in the prefrontal cortex, and—due to the hormonal release—allowing my brain stem and more primitive parts of the brain (such as the pituitary gland) to activate without invoking worry and stress (I admit things get unclear for me here, so I'd like to hear more on this). Regardless, I’m more calm, centered, and clear-minded afterwards.

Benefit # 3: EUPHORIC FEELING

Breathing in excess O2 leads to tingling fingers and lightheadedness. It also creates a slightly euphoric feeling. Is that weird?

PART 2

Then after elevating my O2 levels, that’s when I hold my breath, which I imagine completely moves the O2:CO2 ratio in the opposite relationship — like a seesaw. And in the process, it leads to:

Benefit # 4: WILLPOWER BOOST

It gives a sense of control. And my belief is that a SENSE of control is a main factor in willpower and happiness. (Whether or not we really have any real control is a separate debate.) Since this odd activity increases my sense of control, it increases my sense of happiness.

Benefit # 5: ANTI-FRAGILITY

Stressing the mind and body (safely) leads to the overcompensation effect. That’s why we adapt to heavy weights by getting stronger (to throw out a common example).

Major Concern

Does this pattern of Hyperventilation/Retention cause any harm? There are a few studies covering Wim Hof and his method that show clear results (see below), but much more research is needed.

Anybody have other takes, insights, research, commentary, or suggestions on this?

Research Link : http://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379.full


Note on Lactate Levels
Lactic acid is a product of cell metabolism that can accumulate when cells lack sufficient oxygen (hypoxia) and must turn to a less efficient means of energy production, or when a condition causes excess production or impaired clearance of lactate.

Depending on pH, it is sometimes present in the form of lactic acid. However, with the neutral pH maintained by the body, most lactic acid will be present in the blood as lactate.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2015-12-03

Feedback Loop

id : 20220617184836
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #concept

Feedback Loop

"The more you feed me, the more I feed you."

"A feedback loop occurs in nature when the product of a reaction leads to an increase in that reaction."

Related: Habits carry a ton of hidden inertia

Figuring out your Home MOCs

id : 20220510005642
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Set Up Your Home Note
tags:: #on/PKM

Figuring out your Home MOCs

Your MOCs in your Home note are just your main categories of personal knowledge. They should be broad. At first, you'll probably only need 2-3. Try to stay below 10 or so. They are easy to change and rename to your heart's content.

Finance MOC

id : 20220829214007
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Almost all content and links have been removed.
  • Nick, go here [[Finances 💰]]

Finance MOC

Keep tabs on your personal finances. Here are some areas to consider...

  • In
    • [[Investments MOC]]
  • Out
    • [[Insurance MOC]]
    • [[Housing MOC]]
    • [[Medical MOC]]
    • [[Auto MOC]]
    • [[Bills MOC]]
  • Big Out
    • [[Taxes MOC]]
  • Accounts
    • [[Accounts MOC]]

Many of these areas (like managing taxes) work well in basic computer folders, PDFs, and spreadsheets. You can link from here to there. Then these notes become your hubs and launchpads.

It's fine to leave some documents or projects within apps that are better-suited to handle them. But notes about these documents or projects can help you further reflect, ideate, or push goals forward.

You might even find an excellent balance between managing projects and efforts outside of your core PKM tool, while spending time examining them in this space for a more mindful perspective.


Back to: Home

Flow

id : 20220830000619
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Flow

I am effortless effort, timeless time

The concept of flow has changed my life. Flow is a state of optimal experience.

When you get Reps of Deliberate Practice and gain a certain level of competence, then getting more reps creates a Feedback Loop of deeper focus and Flow-like experiences.

Read how Flow is similar and different to Wu wei.

For a guide on maximizing your flow, go here: FlowCreation MOC.

The thing about Flow is that you can't directly create it; you can only create the Conditions of Flow. Here are the conditions:

![[Conditions of Flow#The Three Major Conditions of Flow]]

Interestingly, Flow is similar to other domains of effort that worsen the harder you try, because [[Flow, Insights, and Acting cannot be forced]] (not included in the LYT Kit).


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2009-01-22

Flow Map

id : 20220830000643
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow
people:: [[20220825014351|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (kit)]]

Flow Map

The Flow Map is Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's way to describe where Flow takes place in regards to the variables: Challenge and Skill. However he came about plotting the two variables against each, it's a landmark discovery. It's a lodestar to which I keep returning. It's the foundation much of my thinking and to my carving of that theory to practical, moment-to-moment application.

Later on, Dr. Mihaly used this version to show the different states of mind plotted on the map of Challenge vs Skill.

What is my Contribution to Flow Theory?

My contribution to Flow Theory is just to expand on using the Flow Map as a practical tool to adjust one’s state of mind as needed—usually to create the Conditions of Flow (FlowCreation Theory).

Basically, Mihaly’s Flow Map can be used many times a day as a simple tool to identify one’s current state of mind. That’s the easy part.

The second part is all about how to take that knowledge to improve one’s state of mind—ideally by getting closer to a feeling of a high quality experience—what Mihaly calls “optimal experience,” which is none other than Flow.

So you can use the Flow Map as a "State of Mind" Map—a useful guide to manage your state of mind from moment to moment.

  1. Find your current state of mind—Maybe ask, "What am I feeling?" or "Where's my head at?"
  2. Create the Conditions of Flow—This is where we can develop some FlowCreation Theory skills and tactics.

Say, someone is anxious: they can point to "Anxiety" on the Flow Map and then have a few ideas how to get closer to "Optimal Experience" (Flow). See below:

The obvious answer for creating the Conditions of Flow is to reduce the level of Challenge or to increase the level of Skill (as the map above shows).

The less obvious answer is HOW. That's about developing some awareness and skills, along with having some tools and tactics handy. See more about that at FlowCreation Theory.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2016

Flow Stoppers

id : 20220505225422
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Flow Stoppers

Find which inhibitor (or two) is currently in the worst shape for you. It is likely a completely different one than it was two hours ago. That's normal because we're constantly living, acting, and reacting to Life.

Attention

Distractions — Lack of focus, which is a part of the element of Attention. Might be from the environment, the surroundings, and/or the digital landscape as well.
Cognitive Switching — This can lead to Confusion, Increased Distractibility, Lack of Focus, and Low Motivation.

Direction

Confusion — Lack of Direction.

Energy

Low Energy — This can lead to Lack of Focus (Increased Distractibility) and Low Motivation
Decision Overload — Making too many decisions encourages to mental fatigue

Enthusiasm

Low Motivation
Low Self-Worth — This covers any self-esteem issue: self-critiquing, the feeling of "not good enough," worrying too much, feeling ashamed, feeling anxious and overwhelmed.

Now that we've seen the main Flow Stoppers, let's check out the main Solutions to Flow Stoppers.

FlowCreation MOC

id : 20220825014354
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Thinking MOC
tags:: #map

Flowcreation MOC

Flowcreation: the choose your own adventure field guide


  • Four Factors of Flow
    • [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]]
    • [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]]
    • [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]]
    • [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]]

FlowCreation Theory

id : 20220830000742
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

FlowCreation Theory

FlowCreation Theory is about creating the Conditions of Flow, not actually Creating Flow, because Flow cannot directly be created. You can only create the conditions of flow, and give yourself the best chance of entering it. %%(Nick, go deeper at [[Flow, Insights, and Acting cannot be forced]] - not included in the LYT Kit)%%

Let's look at the Flow Map with a bunch of extra descriptors added:

There are just two steps:

  1. Find your current state of mind—Maybe ask, "What am I feeling?" or "Where's my head at?" Use the Flow Map for this.
  2. Work on creating the Conditions of Flow.

It's that second step where some skills and tactics are important...

Use specific Skills and Tactics to Create the Conditions of Flow

There are four broad areas to cover when setting up the conditions for Flow. Here is an example of each:

  1. "I'm Anxious, I'm feeling confused." Do I know what to focus on right now? Am I doing the thing I should be doing right now? If this is the issue, then my Direction isn't solid. How can I improve my clarity about what to do? How can I reduce the amount of competing actions to take?
  2. "I'm Anxious, my mind is scattered." What's my environment like; am I getting interrupted too much? If so, then my Attention is suffering. How can I reduce the intensity and frequency of these distractions?
  3. "I'm not excited about anything, I'm apathetic." I need to reconnect to some Enthusiasm. What gets me excited or motivated? How can I reconnect with that?
  4. "I'm tired, I have a headache, everything feels like too much." Why are my Energy levels down? What needs to be improved out of the following: quality of sleep, diet, exercise, leisure time, and/or relationships?

Four Factors of Flow

I have found that using the Flow Map to find your current State of Mind is a valuable exercise to improving it. Equally valuable is using it to find any glaring weaknesses in the elements that help create a good State of Mind. I have found that there are essentially Four Factors of Flow. They are: [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]], [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]], [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]], and [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]]. The best way to improve your experience is to identify what you're lacking, and then taking actions to strengthen that area.

Fluid Frameworks

id : 20220809192042
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

Fluid Frameworks

Fluid frameworks are non-rigid, highly-flexible organizing structures that you can use as needed. When we talk about fluid frameworks in the "Linking Your Thinking" System, we're mainly referring to higher-order notes like MOCs and the Home note (but a balanced use of MOCs, folders, tags, and queries can also maintain a fluid structure).

Fluid frameworks are not mutually exclusive. That means a note with its link in an MOC, doesn't exclusively live in the MOC note. A note can live and link freely. A note can be discovered in as many places as it's referenced. These are the fundamentals of linking notes together.

Now with higher-order notes like MOCs, we can fluidly add any structure, at any time. But these frameworks offer unique attributes to allow us to work more fluidly than ever before.

Fluid Frameworks vs Rigid Frameworks

Wow...So a fluid framework is a non-essential supporting structure.

Whereas, a typical framework—like a folder—is an essential supporting structure. Delete the folder, and you delete the files within.

And that's because folders are not fluid; they are a rigid framework. They reduce the number of ways you have to access the notes trapped within. Now it's worth noting, we do have Global Search, and we can link to notes within folders...so that's better than it used to be...but there is still no removing the friction that comes from having to twirl down folders X, Y, and Z, just to get to Idea Omega.)

So even though folders alone are rigid, if you expertly use Fluid Frameworks—i.e. HIGHER-ORDER NOTES—to support your linked knowledge, then you can also work back in some smart applications of folders.

That's why we're here: to become skilled and confident with how we are deploying the tools that we have to structure our notes in the best way possible.


Fluid Taxonomies

id : 20220829214028
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Fluid Taxonomies

Fluid Taxonomies is a term coined by [[Steen Comer]], which came up in our conversations about MOCs and other ways of managing knowledge.

Steen wrote:

Fluid Taxonomies
The notion that in a loosely-ordered system like a ZK, you can apply taxonomies in an on again, off again way, and not be beholden to any of them for longer than they are useful.

[These taxonomies] are useful abstractions, ways of arranging information to provide paths for specific purposes.

All of them have advantages and disadvantages. Most notably, all of them fail to give you the serendipity of search that most [zettlekasten] options traditionally have. Which is fine, depending on what you're trying to do.

Make sure you keep in mind that whatever taxonomy you're using is not True, it's just a tool.

It occurs to me, another way of thinking about this is that you're applying hierarchies, like a file system directory tree, but they're being applied in such a way that does not limit the data to staying in those hierarchies.

[Consider] the metaphor of a functioning collective. You put a hierarchy in place (like an MOC), for as long as it's useful. And then when it's not useful, the members of that hierarchy rearrange their power structure to suit the new purpose.

Then to summarize the conversation, Steen riffed on the Discordian quote:

“All models are True in some sense, False in some sense, and Meaningless in some sense” #source/quote

Steen is one of those people who makes you think. Check out their stuff here: http://mediapathic.net

Back to Fluid Frameworks


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-06-01

Fluid Thinking

id : 20220829230917
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Thinking MOC
tags:: #on/thinking

Fluid Thinking

Being able to think fluidly gives you the awareness and skill to think from the right level of abstraction at the right time.

Fluid Thinking is the ability to skillfully adjust your perspective— zooming in and out of the levels of emergence. This allows you to approach a problem from the inside and the outside…tacking back and forth with ease to generate new value and find novel solutions.

That opens up a lot a whole new ability to think fluidly and flexibly, and to accomplish a lot more in a lot less time, and have a lot more fun doing it.

  • Sometime you start from the bottom-up: Note » MOC » Home
  • Sometime you start from the top-down: Home » MOC » Note
  • Sometimes you start from the middle-out: MOC » Note & MOC » Home

Let's use all three. That's the goal. ==The goal is Fluid Thinking.==


PS: My MO is MO.

Next: [[20220813001201|Note-making is about the pursuit of truth]]

Folgezettel - 100a.1 Showing How Folgezettel Works

id : 20220831003316
type : undefined
keywords :

If you're looking at this note, I'm just trying to show you in 20 seconds how rigid Folgezettel is. Instead, you can get all the benefits without all the negatives by using higher order notes like MOCs to build completely fluid, non-rigid structures.

[[20220813005711|Folgezettel - 100a.1a But Also How It]]

Folgezettel - 100a.1a But Also How It

id : 20220813005711
type : undefined
keywords :

But also how it doesn't work easily

[[20220813005719|Folgezettel - 100a.1b Adds certain things...]]

Folgezettel - 100a.1b Adds certain things...

id : 20220813005719
type : undefined
keywords :

Because when you add certain things

[[20220813005714|Folgezettel - 100a.2 Adds Upfront Friction]]

Folgezettel - 100a.2 Adds Upfront Friction

id : 20220813005714
type : undefined
keywords :

You have A LOT of upfront deliberations figuring out where exactly it's supposed to fit. Some thinking is great, but not THIS MUCH.

[[20220905000429|Folgezettel - 100b.1 And Long-term Rigidity]]

Folgezettel - 100b.1 And Long-term Rigidity

id : 20220905000429
type : undefined
keywords :

And over time, it becomes quite rigid.

Return to LYT Kit.

Forcing Function

id : 20220724180730
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept, #note/develop🍃

Forcing Function

Generally speaking,
I am the bumper guards for the bowling ball.
but if used smartly,
I turn flat land into halfpipes.

Through the lens of behavior, a forcing function is any task, activity or event that forces you to take action and produce a result.

Common Domains

differential calculus, interaction design, personal development

Personal Development

Use as a behavioral constraint

Related Keywords, Concepts, and Metaphors

bumper guards, guard rails, training wheels, things that help you to stay the course

Wiki

A behavior-shaping constraint, also sometimes referred to as a forcing function or poka-yoke, is a technique used in error-tolerant design to prevent the user from making common errors or mistakes. One example is the reverse lockout on the transmission of a moving automobile.

Four Factors of Flow

id : 20220829220452
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Four Factors of Flow

These are the four factors that govern flow. If you're in Flow, it's because these factors are doing well. If you are not in flow, then at least one factor isn't doing well.

Main Factors Governing the Strength of Each

  1. [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]] — Level of Clarity; Amount of Directions — Aside from "Nature & Nurture" (which is a philosophical rabbit hole), it's the Level of Clarity and Amount of Directions (i.e. the number of goals one has) that most govern the strength of Direction.
  2. [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]] — Distractions in both Frequency and Intensity — This is most governed by Distractions: the Intensity of Distractions and the Frequency of Distractions.
  3. [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]] — Level of Desire — This also ties into "Nature & Nurture" a bit. It might sound circular, but one's Level of Desire dictates one's Enthusiasm. It's the most intangible. What excites somebody? What inspires them, motivates them, fills them with passion? I'm not sure how to best affect one's Enthusiasm. It's the "Why" in the world of "Goal Setting." It's very personal to each person, but some commonalities are usually: to be stimulated and engaged, to feel important, to feel the work is important, to improve one's financial situation.
  4. [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]] — Quality of Sleep, Diet, & Exercise; Quality of Relationships & Community; Quality of Leisure Time — also Hydration, Sunlight, Nature, Hobbies, etc.

How They Impact Each Other

  • If Direction is clear and not diluted, then it's easier to focus one's Attention; Enthusiasm isn't diluted; Energy isn't wasted.
  • If Attention isn't spread too thin amid myriad distractions, then it's easier to [[stay-on-target.jpg|stay on target]] in the ideal Direction; Enthusiasm isn't diluted; Energy isn't wasted.
  • If Enthusiasm is strong, then it's easier to stay committed to one's Direction; it's easier to maintain one's Attention; it's easier to compensate for middling Energy levels.
  • If Energy is cultivated, then your Direction seems possible/doable/easier; You can more easily maintain your Attention; you can get work done even when you're not feeling Enthusiasm (and through the process of doing the work, you can usually create new Enthusiasm).
    • If you have a [[Poor Diet]] (not included in the LYT Kit), then your Attention is going to suck: you'll be more easily distracted; so you'll spend time in other Directions; and thus you'll dilute and dissipate your Enthusiasm. This one is a huge component that you can control. You can replace "Poor Diet" with "Lack of Sleep" and you'll get similar results.

Four Virtues

id : 20220829194634
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/Living

Four Virtues

I have found that a better way to look at Virtues is less as Values and more as "Abilities," because it implies that it's not enough to value something, you have to be skilled in it.

Out of many schools of thought, I have found that using the Stoic Virtues as a base, aligned the best with my way of thinking. Below are the most valuable virtues in which to be really skilled:

  • Wisdom — includes good sense, good calculation, quick-wittedness, discretion, resourcefulness, financial intelligence, gratitude, and knowing on what to spend attention.
    • Prioritizing Attention — creating clarity and prioritizing with purpose where to deliberately spend attention
    • Financial Excellence — includes financial prudence and intelligence
    • Gratitude — includes love, thankfulness, thinking outside oneself
  • Courage — includes vulnerability, confidence, love, endurance, high-mindedness, cheerfulness, will, kindness, and industriousness
  • Morality — includes justice, integrity, honesty, kindness, and fair dealing
    Kindness — includes love, empathy, compassion, warmth, openness
  • Moderation — includes temperance, moderation (good discipline, seemliness, modesty, and self-control), good balance of activity and life roles, good management of yin/yang

  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2018
    • created:: 2018
    • touched::2019
    • modified:: 2019

Framing

id : 20220831003425
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: Priming
tags:: #concept

Framing

I'm the hidden 500 pound gorilla that underpins all human communication.

If you hear, "this doesn't cost $1000, it only costs $50!" That sounds great because it's been framed in context to $1000. But even $50 is a lot for a cup of coffee.

This is related to "moving the goalposts" and other cognitive biases (not included in the LYT Kit)

Wiki

The Framing Effect: People tend to avoid risk when a positive frame is presented but seek risks when a negative frame is presented. Gain and loss are defined in the scenario as descriptions of outcomes (e.g., lives lost or saved, disease patients treated and not treated, etc.).

In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality. Framing can manifest in thought or interpersonal communication.

Future-proofed

id : 20220831003500
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: Evergreen notes are antifragile

Future-proofed

Much can be said about future-proofing your notes. In short: be aware of how software is locking you in. And don't trust exporters, there is little incentive for the companies to allow you to export perfectly out of their software (ie Evernote), although customers are demanding that now and there are many good players like Bear and Obsidian, but in general don't expose yourself to the risk.

Gall's Law

id : 20220829220459
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Gall's Law

[[Structure must be earned]]! #source/quote/my


Gall’s Law is a rule of thumb for systems design that states:

All complex systems that work evolved from simpler systems that worked.

[And conversely...] A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.

So don't build unearned structure. Don't build walls in the desert.

Avoid costly structuring traps.

If you want to build a complex system that works, you have to build a simpler system first, and then improve it over time. This is a major component of the [[Idea Emergence Levels]] in any LYT framework.

Put another way, the only structure that can work over time, is the structure that slowly emerges over time—validating its own existence through its successful use.

Practically speaking, DO NOT start structuring your "ultimate" system in one fell swoop. It will fail you, because it will be fragile, because it wasn't forged in the fire of practical usage. You will waste time and enthusiasm—and could possibly burn out.


That said, you weren't born yesterday. You have lived many years of life, so even though your PKM digital structures may not all be "earned", you are also not starting from scratch.

Related

Divergence, Emergence, Convergence, Complexity, Systems Thinking, Systems Theory

Wiki

Examples: This law...can be used to explain the success of systems like the World Wide Web and Blogosphere, which grew from simple to complex systems incrementally, and the failure of systems like CORBA, which began with complex specifications.

Guiding assumptions for linked notes

id : 20220905191501
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit

Guiding assumptions for linked notes

The external part of your ideaverse should make sense and be useable to someone else—including and especially your future self.

On linking and thinking

When you manually make connections between notes, you foster new insights, enhance note retrieval, and improve your understanding.

  • When you get repetitions with your ideaverse, you literally improve your memory, as your brain rewires your knowledge more effectively and efficiently.
  • When your note has more contexts it's linked to, you have a better the chance you have of remembering it quickly.
  • When you have more ways to access a note, you have a better chance of retrieving it quickly.

On the changeability and nature of notes

  • You can write long notes and short notes.
  • You can write messy and clean notes.
  • You can split and combine notes.
  • You can always edit notes, even years into the future.
  • Your more valuable notes should eventually—generally—focus on a main idea.
    • Why? Because long notes say many things, which means, when you link to a long note, your link isn't as clear. Your resulting confusion is a result of the vagueness of the link.
  • Your notes don't have to be "atomic".
    • Just because it's valuable to generally focus your notes on a main idea, it doesn't mean you should be making extra tiny atomic notes. Some people are rigid in their dogma that every note must be small. In doing so, they ironically succumb to the problems of over-structuring, the very thing they were trying to avoid. Just instead of over-structuring by having too many folders, they get stuck over-structuring by fragmenting out their ideas so much, it's too difficult to maintain a cohesive thought!
    • Creativity—benefits from shifting the rigid dogma on both ends so we land back into the "goldilocks zone" of effective thinking.

Guiding Values of PKM

id : 20220511235144
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The forest entrance
tags:: #on/PKM

Guiding Values of PKM

When it comes to managing your digital knowledge, the following are some guiding values and principles to consider.

Your digital library should:

  1. Be a joy to use
  2. Be future-proofed (so your notes are robust, not fragile)
  3. Allow for fast and reliable note retrieval (both today and in 10 years)
  4. Encourage critical, creative, connective, and generative thinking
  5. Encourage active, engaged, and contextual thinking
  6. Encourage lateral and metaphorical thinking
  7. Allow for the spontaneous cross-pollination of ideas
  8. Produce finished products (when desired)
  9. Accumulate in meaningful knowledge over time
  10. Compound in personal value over time
  11. Encourage repetition (repetitions strengthen memory)

These values are cultivated in the LYT Framework. ««« This is purposely not a link because I want you to either:

  • return to The forest entrance ☝️
  • or you also can choose to keep reading 👇

Guiding Questions

  1. Can I find what I'm looking for quickly? Easily?
  2. Am I able to think fast? Am I able to think deeply?
  3. Can I be surprised by serendipitous connections?

Go back

Use the "uplink" at the top of this note to return to The forest entrance.

Habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage

id : 20220829194545
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit

Habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage

Whenever we take an action, neurons fire and strengthen their connections. Then, when we repeat that same action, it miraculously requires less effort. How can this be?!

It's because Nature's Selfish Gene has a prime directive to survive—which means to become more efficient—so whatever you do once, is easier to do a second time.

By making a repeated action more efficient, less energy is used, less willpower is required[^1], and fewer calories are burned—all of which lead to a better chance of survival.

Bad habits and good habits are nothing more than a bunch of self-perpetuating Feedback Loops that have grown efficient over time, with deeply enmeshed neural connections. In this way, "Passing mental states become lasting neural traits”.[^2]

To quit a bad habit, don't try to stop it like Superman; you'll fail. Habits carry a ton of hidden inertia in the form of built-up neural efficiencies in the brain (see Cobwebs into Cables). Instead, try to co-opt it by shifting the tracks. See Changing a habit is really about replacing a routine.


While "habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage", it doesn't necessarily form in the ways you might think—meaning, your "self" optimizes for what you repeat, regardless of whether or not it's "good" for you.

![[2010 - Willpower - Robinson et al (paper)#^309fcc]]

[^1]: When it comes to willpower expenditure, the anterior cingulate cortex, is a crucial player.
[^2]: Quote by Hebb's Rule


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-05-29
    • created:: 2020-05-29

Habits carry a ton of hidden inertia

id : 20220909043621
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Habits carry a ton of hidden inertia

While some Feedback Loops show immediate results, many times progress is hidden until much further along in time. This type of progress, where it's not obvious and visible is basically "hidden inertia".

Whatever is happening above ground, below ground it's like trying to push a railroad car; nothing seems to happen for the longest time, but eventually the momentum build and takes on a life of its own, just like Jim Collins [[Flywheel Effect]] or Shelley's [[Frankenstein Monster]].

Or really, this is another reason why [[Pace Layers]] are such a fundamentally powerful concept.

This relates to one of my all-time favorite truisms: Like begets like.

And here are a couple other riffs on that:

A rolling snowball gathers more snow.
Change your mind to change your brain, to eventually—after building up tons of inertia—change your mind.

Habits MOC

id : 20220905183035
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The 3 Phases of MOCs
tags:: #map #on/habit

[!NOTE]+ Navigate with your new MOC
Connect your new MOC with the the rest of your network of knowledge so you can navigate your notes near the speed of thought.

Enjoy the spatial constellation you created. Your MOCs will be meaningful to you.

Use your more mature MOCs for different purposes:

  • for final products (content creation)
  • as a reference point in the future, as a navigational hub
  • for the inherent joy the ideas provide.

As you finish work on an area of interest, the MOC remains as a renewable summation of thought for the future you. An MOC is your easy access point back into the topic—whether that's tomorrow or in ten years.

Below is an assembly of the notes in some sort of formalized structure. I have continued adding to this whenever it made sense.

Habits MOC

I am an unrelenting evolutionary adaptation—whether you like it or not!

Understanding Habits

Designing Habits

Example of Habit Design

Important Habits

Being able to adapt is an important habit
Important habits preserve mental clarity and a sense of control
Preparing for the next day is an important habit
Journaling in the morning is an important habit
Writing down daily goals in the morning is an important habit

Related Concepts

Feedback Loop, Like begets like
Cobwebs into Cables, Reps, Sense of Control
Natural Selection, Selfish Gene, Survival of the Fittest
[[Flywheel Effect]],

Other Miscellaneous

  • [[20220830023515|Words I've used to describe important habits]]

Changing a habit is really about replacing a routine


Finish the walkthrough: [[20220829214605|The 3 Phases of MOCs, a coda]]


LYT Vision

Activate "LYT Vision" to resurface thoughts in context. When you twirl this open, it's like you are putting on night vision goggles: you see things hidden in the shadows.

The main contextual queries I prefer are "unrequited" & "unmentioned" notes.

Unrequited notes, by link

These notes point directly to this note. But this note doesn't point back.

table file.mtime.year + "-" + file.mtime.month + "-" + file.mtime.day as Modified
from [Habits MOC](#20220905183035){title="Habits MOC" onclick=openRecord(20220905183035) .record-link}
and !outgoing([Habits MOC](#20220905183035){title="Habits MOC" onclick=openRecord(20220905183035) .record-link})
sort file.mtime desc

Unmentioned notes, with related tag

These notes have the tag # and are not mentioned above.

table file.mtime.year + "-" + file.mtime.month + "-" + file.mtime.day as Modified
from #on/habit 
and !outgoing([Habits MOC](#20220905183035){title="Habits MOC" onclick=openRecord(20220905183035) .record-link})
sort file.mtime desc

Habits MOC - Collide

id : 20220813003331
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The 3 Phases of MOCs
tags:: #on/PKM, #on/habit

Habits MOC - Develop

This is where you generate all the insights. This is where ideas collide. It's where your ideas battle for relational positioning. This is the most joyous and valuable stage.

Once you have all your ideas in one MOC, use it like a crucible where ideas can battle it out for positioning, forcing you to grind them to their fundamental essence—thinking of their proximal importance to each other and building stronger connective tissue between them.

Great work is accomplished during in this conceptual battle royale. The product of this work is rarely one without satisfaction.

Day 1

Naturally, excitedly, organically—without a task manager telling me what to do—I open up a note—[[2015-02-20 Habit Concepts and Theory]]—and I craft it into an evergreen note. But I when I try to name it, I realize it's too big, so I split it up into two evergreen notes:

[[20220617184828|The neural formation of habits is additive - v1]]
[[20220510002929|The truest habit metaphors are additive - v1]]

And I have even more stuff remaining in that note but I haven't figured out what to call it yet.

I leave the others alone for now.

[[2013-03-10 Habit Planning]]
[[2015-02-20 Habit Formation Research Article]]

[[20220829225318|2018 - Atomic Habits (book)]]
[[2019-01-25 Resiliency Routines]]


I'm done for the night. I'm comforted by this MOC; my notes have a digital workbench to rest upon. I'm satisfied with creating two evergreen notes. They have value to me. I go to sleep smiling.


Day 2

I continued where I left off. This was the big session where the magic happened.

Now look at your collected notes and the questions will just arrive, unforced: What are they trying to say? What is redundant? What note needs to be split into two? What outside concepts relate to this?

You naturally work yourself into a state of Flow and time becomes timeless; effort effortless. Here were my results:


I also try to keep track of the standalone concepts I've roped in here:
Feedback Loop
Cobwebs into Cables
[[20220829214455|Newton's Laws of Motion]]
Natural Selection
Survival of the Fittest
[[Selfish Gene TK]]


Next:: Habits MOC - Navigate

Habits MOC - Gather

id : 20220813003331
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The 3 Phases of MOCs
tags:: #on/PKM, #on/habit

Habits MOC - Gather Phase

The first non-linear phase of MOCs is where you assemble, collect, gather, curate, incubate your ideas. This is where you put related stuff on a new digital workbench.

Imagine having a warehouse of limitless workbenches, and for each workbench you curate the notes placed on it. Whenever you feel you need to get a handle on a bunch of notes on Subject XYZ, just throw them all onto a new workbench—i.e. place their links into a new MOC note titled Subject XYZ MOC. Now it's easier to begin.

For our walkthrough, I decided to compile old notes I collected on the topic of habits:

[[2013-03-10 Habit Planning]]
[[2015-02-20 Habit Formation Research Article]]
[[2015-02-20 Habit Concepts and Theory]]
[[20220829225318|2018 - Atomic Habits (book)]]
[[2019-01-25 Resiliency Routines]]

I have only "gathered" the links. They are not organized yet. That happens in the next phase:


Next: [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Collide]]

Health MOC

id : 20220829214300
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Almost all content and links have been removed.

Health MOC

This is for areas of physical health, wellness, training, and exercise.

  • Overall
    • [[Physical Training MOC]]
    • [[Nutrition MOC]]
    • [[Sleep MOC]]
  • Exercises
    • [[Exercises MOC]]
    • [[Breathing Exercises MOC]]
  • Fuzzy Favorites
    • [[Hormesis MOC]]
    • [[Posture MOC]]
  • Logs
    • [[Medical MOC]]
    • [[Workouts Tracker]]
    • [[Injury Tracker MOC]]
    • [[Body Quirks Tracker]]

Heterarchy

id : 20220717193545
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: MOCs Overview, [[Idea Emergence MOC]]
tags:: #on/systems

Heterarchy

A heterarchy is an unranked (non-hierarchical) system of organization, or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. (Wikipedia)

In a digital library, MOCs are the main example of a heterarchy.

Go to: LYT Glossary

Home

id : 20220913025516
type : undefined
keywords :

Home 🌎

Your launchpad and home base. That's here. That's home.

Atlas

These are maps to launch your efforts. Where would you like to go?

Hormesis

id : 20220829214423
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Hormesis

Stronger from stressors.

Hormesis ties in tightly with Antifragility.

Related

[[List of Hormetic Stressors]]

Wiki

Hormesis is any process in a cell or organism that exhibits a biphasic response to exposure to increasing amounts of a substance or condition.[1] Within the hormetic zone, there is generally a favorable biological response to low exposures to toxins and other stressors. Hormesis comes from Greek hórmēsis "rapid motion, eagerness", itself from ancient Greek hormáein "to set in motion, impel, urge on". Hormetics is the term proposed for the study and science of hormesis.

How Atomic Habits fit into the conversation on habits

id : 20220830001621
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

How Atomic Habits fit into the conversation on habits

Atomic Habits is a term from James Clear, with a book of the same name.

Here's a summary of his argument:

  • Winners and losers can have the same goals, so what actually makes the difference? The system and process. Yep, makes me this of my ode to The Process, see [[20220829183036|Trust the process (kit)]].
  • Habits are the fundamental unit of your systems. Your current systems are perfectly designed to provide you with your current results.

James adds a fourth step to Duhigg's habit cycle, which was needed. James is a smart dude. Check out the steps here: Understanding the habit cycle and habitual cues.

Other tidbits:

  • The first step is Awareness. Discover and record your habits throughout the day. Here's an example of me Charting out habit cycles in my life circa 2013
    • The more specific the implementation, the more motivation, ie time, place, etc
  • Focus on Identity over Outcome: ie "I'm the guy who..." over thinking about the result I want...Every action you take is you casting a vote for your identity.
  • James shares 'The Goldilocks rule', which is nothing more than finding Flow through balancing challenge with ability, which apparently is 3-4% beyond your current ability. You need victories to stay satisfied, but you need to be challenged.

"Men desire novelty to such a degree that men who are doing well require it just as much as men who are not."

Ah yes, "novelty". Reminds me of how [[Our brain's attentional filter responds to Importance and Novelty]].


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2019-10-01
    • created:: 2019-10-01
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

How can we be responsible pro-active citizens without becoming full-time activists

id : 20220813003209
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829225152|2015 - Between the World and Me (book)]]
tags:: #note/question❓

How can we be responsible pro-active citizens without becoming full-time activists

This question and broader topic is a loaded gun, a landmine, but I'm just placing it here to force the question...

How ideas and efforts play nicely together

id : 20220913015201
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Efforts

How ideas and efforts play nicely together

The best way to understand "efforts" is to walk through an example of how "efforts" naturally support existing ideas.

For example, check out Sensemaking happens by triangulation. It started out as an idea I had. I wanted to better understand what "sensemaking" was and how it worked.

  • So I made a new note.
  • It was called "triangulation"
  • I looked up stuff and brushed up on the history of triangulation in navigation.
  • Slowly, the note developed into a direction I could not plan for ahead of time.
  • I adjusted the title to match what was growing within the note.
    • So "triangulation" became "Sensemaking through triangulation"
  • I felt the spark of wanting to share this idea.
  • That's when it became an effort!
  • That forced the title to change one more time.
  • Then I made it into a workshop lesson.
  • Then I replaced it in the workshop because I wanted to get us more on hands-up repetitions.
  • But I still liked the idea, so I rewrote it into a youtube video
  • ...and a twitter thread
  • ...and later I even rewrote it for my newsletter
  • ...and later, I want to get it up on my website.
  • ...and always, I have this treasure to fuel my own thinking.
  • That's the power of thinking in "efforts" and not projects.

Go back to the first bullet. Can you imagine if tried to call this a "project". A project of what?! I didn't even know what I was trying to do! It would have smothered my spark of curiosity and replaced it with feelings of guilt for not completing it—whatever "it" was.

It was only because I eventually framed this note as an "effort" that I benefitted from the space to breath with the idea and allow it to grow into one of my favorite ideas!

Had I been worried about some sort of project-driven output, with a hard deadline, this idea would have never evolved to what it has now become.

This is the power of "efforts" over "projects" when it comes to developing your ideas.


If you work in a corporate environment with clear deadlines and less creative work, you'll be fine with projects.

If you work with ideas, you'll finally feel free with efforts.

Back to: Efforts

Idea Emergence (defn)

id : 20220829215412
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220825051121|Systems MOC (kit)]]
tags:: #on/PKM #on/systems

Idea Emergence is the process of how the ideas you encounter go from the "nothingness" to the "somethingness"—and how those ideas grow in richness, complexity, and personally meaningful value over time.

  • Idea Emergence is how value forms from mixing a person (or persons') experiences with their uniqueness.
  • Idea Emergence is where past things combine with new situations and something distinct emerges.

In "Personal Knowledge Management, there are 5 Emergence Levels.

A twitter thread that details Idea Emergence

https://twitter.com/NickMilo/status/1317190776284086272

Nick, go to your map on this here: [[Idea Emergence MOC]] (not included in the LYT Kit).

Important habits preserve mental clarity and a sense of control

id : 20220829194444
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

Important habits preserve mental clarity and a sense of control

I have found that important habits seem to be excellent at preserving mental clarity and a Sense of Control. It's no surprise. The forces of psychic entropy must constantly be held at bay.

Psychic Entropy encompasses anything that leads to a feeling of chaos. It's a frenetic energy. It's feeling scatter-brained, constantly distracted, overwhelmed, overrun, and burnt out. It's a constant battle; and we must be diligent. We will be bent, bowed, and bloodied. We will lose our way countless times.

That's where it's good to know which habits are important for you. For me, my important habits all are small things I can do. And Small Wins foster a Sense of Control.

Here are three basic important habits:

It's also worth checking out Resiliency Routines help regain a sense of control, which highlight a pattern of "waking early, journaling, and working out"as a means to regain a sense of control in one's life.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-06-28
    • created:: 2014-06-28
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Improving Micro Habits at the Point of Contact

id : 20220829194406
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

Improving Micro Habits at the Point of Contact

Micro Habits: These are super tiny, hidden habits that happen without us usually being aware of them; but that can majorly impact our state of mind.

Micro Habits happen at a moment called "The Point of Contact"

The Point of Contact
The Point of Contact (POC) is not a contact you have with an external stimulus. Rather, it's a contact with your internal response to an external stimulus.

It's an emotion, thought, feeling, impulse or bodily sensation exerting an influence on your current state of mind.

If you can bring awareness to your micro habits during these consequential points of contact, you can make sure not to get derailed by them.

The POC emerges out of the fog of the subconscious. Sometime we pinpoint it sooner than other times. Whenever we do, we engage the dual-mind.

The Dual Mind
The Dual Mind refers to the conscious/subconscious minds.

We need to develop the skills, awareness, and intuition to identify POCs that can derail our day; so we can effectively deal with them like a master in Aikido would.

Two Micro Habits to improve:

  1. Recognize harmful POCs
  2. Effectively deal with harmful POCs

This is about winning the point of contact. The answers for both are usually just a few questions:

  • What is it I'm feeling right now? Why is that?
  • How much do I want these feelings to consume my attention?

  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-06-28
    • created:: 2014-06-28
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

In case of a focus emergency

id : 20220506182530
type : undefined
keywords :

In what ways can we form useful relationships between notes

id : 20220831182439
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #output/article☑️
URL:: Medium

[!NOTE] This is the 2nd best version. The best version is in the LYT Curriculum.

In what ways can we form useful relationships between notes?

Are you into personal knowledge management (PKM)? Are you confused about when to use a folder versus a tag versus a link versus a Map of Content? Let’s explore each “relationship-builder” and how we can use them expertly.

Main Ideas

  • Top-down categorizing has gotten a bad rap. It has a place.
  • Bottom-up creating is great, but it needs a bit of top-down structure as your library grows. But using just folders is the WRONG way.
  • Maps of Contents (MOCs) are game-changers.

A flat structure of notes — i.e. one big folder — is “frictionless”. There is no thinking “now where exactly does this go?” However, over time it becomes messy and overwhelming. To overcome the chaos, we need to build healthy, flexible frameworks that can grow with our knowledge over time.

Let’s examine the known— and lesser known — ways we form useful relationships between notes.

Direct Links

Image for post

Direct links are the strongest type of relationship. They are the purest and most explicit way of connecting two notes. This is the core method of growing a healthy, dynamic zettelkasten.

Despite the proclamations, direct links alone are not enough. They do not allow for easy, dependable high-level navigation. They are a system of streets connecting one block to another. But sometimes you want to zoom out and view the map.

Folders

Folders are rigid and exclusionary by their nature. Whatever is in a folder lives separated from the main collection. It’s a rigid hierarchy that imposes order. Without special workarounds this limits note accessibility, discourages interdisciplinary thinking, and stunts the long-term growth of a complex and interesting Zettelkasten.

There are some strategic uses for folders, but their overuse may be a sign that the user is uncomfortable with other, arguably better methods of building relationships between notes while maintaining the long-term health of their digital library. If you have some quixotic notion about creating a digital library that acts as an interesting conversation partner — folders don’t make it as easy.

What about for projects? Depending on the use cases, a person might like using folders for projects.

  • If your goal is to manage projects, folders are great — maybe even ideal. You might decide that you want your projects to be actively walled-off units.
  • But once they are final, you would need to take the extra steps of reformulating any good stuff into your main digital library.

A possible use for a folder is as a temporary inbox, or “incubation” folder. As long as you view these research streams as temporary staging grounds, to be deleted or assimilated with the Borg- er, I mean, your main-brain-frame; you should be fine. Otherwise, that inbox folder can get awfully crufty.

Another possible use for folders would be for “very clearly defined” notes. For example, things like: Images, People, Quotes, and Source Materials (things written by other people). You don’t have to use these folders; you could easily add their contents into the main vault; but you might find it keeps things slightly more tidy.

But know this: retreating too much into project-based folder management will cripple your long-term thinking partner (i.e., your zettelkasten) from growing complex, dynamic, and interesting cross-genre connections. You won’t have a zettelkasten, you’ll have a collection of silo-ed folders. Those are massive costs to consider.

That said, limiting accessibility may be ideal for private information like finances, health, and private journaling. Then a folder is the perfect instrumental to intentionally cordon off those notes from the rest.

Tags

Tags are relatively weak associations, but don’t discount them. They are easy ways to quickly filter large swathes of notes. Tags are more fluid: one note can have multiple tags. The problem is that tags alone don’t scale.

Say you have a #PermanentNote tag or tag page. Whenever you take notes on something you read or watch, you apply that tag. It’s great when only 50 notes have that tag. It’s far less useful when 500 notes have that tag.

Multiple Tags

A partial solution is to use multiple tags, so you can search for: #PermanentNote #habit to filter in only those results.

But the problem here is that you have to remember each tag!

What happens when you can’t remember that when you’re tagging a new note? You end up using #improvement or something else. Sure, maybe you can remember this single #habit example. But over time you’ll lose track of how to tag a new note in a way you can reliably retrieve (meaning that it will scale well and you’ll remember it). By the way, software that allows for “starred” notes is just exercising a form of tagging.

Tags with Saved Boolean Search

Saved Searches are another partial and robust solution. You can save a tag search like #PermanentNote AND #habit.

Image for post

Using Tags for Chronological Searches

Tags also work well in the temporal context. Here are some tags that work well as a search when your notes have timestamps: #journal | #writing ; #people | #waiting | #log/meeting ; #health | #workout ; and even #source

Proximity

Everyone tends to forget how we use the proximity between notes to build relationships. Organizing by proximity can be weak and arbitrary (airplane flight sitting next to total strangers) or strong and meaningful (airplane flight next to your family). It just depends on what level you apply it. There are 3 basic levels of proximity.

  1. Organizing by Proximity in the main folder:
  • Alphabetical: Sure “Apple” and “Banana” start next to each other and hold a strong relationship. But over time that proximity will change; because years later the list looks like “Apple”, “aqua”, “aqualung”, “arabesque”, “arachne”, “arbiter”, “arc”, “arena”, “aries”, “arise”, “Arkansas”, “Banana”. So relationships that start out strong can weaken over time.

Image for post

  • Chronological: If you sort by creation date, the proximities between notes won’t change but they are inherently more arbitrary (random), except for their temporal context (which holds varying value depending on the context).

2. Organizing by Proximity in the same subfolder:

  • Notes in the same subfolder will have a closer relationship since they are grouped in the same vicinity. But this comes at the cost of being silo-ed from the rest of the note library.

3. Organizing by Proximity in an MOC (Map of Content):

Image for post

  • Notes in the same MOC are very likely to be closely related, especially after they are manually sorted in some form of relational positioning. This is the best way to apply the power of proximity.

Using just a single note, you can identify and build relationships between notes.

Map of Contents (MOC)

Image for post

An MOC is just a note — a very special type of note. It uses proximity effectively and acts like a tag and a non-exclusive folder at the same time.

  • Tag-like: It groups the links of associated notes in a non-exclusive way. (The notes themselves live freely elsewhere.)
  • Folder-like: It assembles notes in a tightly-packed grouping.
  • Proximity: It grants you the ability to deliberately position each note in relation to the other notes.

In this way, MOCs don’t limit access, they curate it — while keeping your notes free.

Using MOCs is like being in your own warehouse full of workbenches, where each workbench contains a selection of highly curated index cards for you to engage with.

Another way to consider MOCs is through emergence.

MOCs are Evergreen notes, just at the next level of emergence.

In an MOC, the party is always happening. It’s the “room where it happens.” Individual notes can “shadow-clone” themselves and essentially be in multiple parties simultaneous — interacting and developing complexity from each party at the same time!

Q: How do MOCs compare to TOCs (Table of Contents)?

A: Whereas MOCs are fluid, TOCs are rigid. This is by design. A table of contents is for assembling a specific and linear order. MOCs serve much broader purposes. Oftentimes an MOC can morph into a TOC as a project starts to finalize.

A Home Note

Image for post

Think of your Home note as the highest-level of your zettelkasten / digital library. It has links to the main MOCs in your library along with your most relevant tags.

It is an excellent access point because it encourages you to focus on the areas in your life that you’ve deemed as important.

A Home note creates stronger, longer-lasting connections, especially as one’s library grows far beyond 1000 notes.

Don’t fall for the dogma

Until recently, folders were all we had. They weren’t good enough. Now we have links. Now many people have taken a hard stance that all they need are links. Hard stances become fragile stances. Don’t fall for the dogma. The right tools for a healthy digital library include a multitude of relationship-builders.

These relationship-builders include: a Home note. Maps of Content. Direct Links. Proximity. Tags.

And yes, even a few folders.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-08-08
    • published:: 2020-08-08

Inbox

id : 20220923162815
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map/view

The Inbox

This isn't a normal inbox. It's a cooling pad 🧊.

Thoughts come in hot 🌶. But after a few days, they cool down ❄️.

When cooler thoughts prevail, you can better prioritize. Cool?

This view looks at the 20 newest notes in your + Encounters folder. As you process each note, make connections, add details, move them to the best folder, and delete everything that no longer sparks ✨.

[!HINT]+ This data view 🔬 only renders in the free downloadable version.
If you are viewing this note on Obsidian Publish, you won't be able to see the magic unless you download the kit, but here's what it looks like in my personal vault...

If you can see the table below, you have already downloaded the LYT Kit.

TABLE WITHOUT ID
 file.link as "Encounters and new notes",
 (date(today) - file.cday).day as "Days alive"

FROM "+ Encounters" and -#on/readme 

SORT file.cday asc

LIMIT 20

If you want to encounter some new things, check out: 🐦 or 📚

Information that crosses our attentional filter becomes knowledge

id : 20220506062418
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: [[20220923162426|+ About Cards]]
tags:: #on/PKM

Information that crosses our attentional filter becomes knowledge

Information is everywhere.

It is in a book / it is in a nook / it's absolutely everywhere you look.

Information is all around us.

Once we have a relationship with any bit of information—consciously or subconsciously—that information becomes knowledge.

Said another way: Information that crosses our attentional filter becomes knowledge.

With enough knowledge, experience, and "connecting-the-dots" that comes from living; we form patterns of insights, heuristics, and helpful models of the world. The better we get, the more complex patterns we are able to chunk into bite size bits that we can act upon.

"Pattern recognition" alone doesn’t make us wise, but it gets us closer to wisdom. It opens the door to acting with more of that cumulative umami we might call wisdom.

All from making sense—over time—of countless bits of information.

Is LYT For Me

id : 20220825052248
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

Is LYT for me?

Disclaimer: If you are completely new, ignore most of the LYT Kit and just start making notes. Come back after you have at least 100 notes.

If you're just starting out
You don't need any of this. Just make notes and start writing. Worry about structure later.

If you've got around 100-500 notes
Some of your favorite notes will become harder to find. You'll start to desire a way to structure and organize your notes. Like a vampire thirsting for blood, you'll find yourself gravitating toward the creation of MOCs.

If you've got around 1000-5000 notes
You'll want to structure your structures. This is where these flexible frameworks starts providing mega-value. There are a lot of benefits.

If you've got 5000-50,000 notes
Note retrieval issues become amplified: can you find the thing you're looking for? I would say your only hope is a fundamentally robust set of co-existing frameworks. Hopefully a library with LYT frameworks can scale effectively at these numbers. You'll probably have MOCs built upon other MOCs. I would imagine the Home note (along with search) would be your initial launching pad.


If you have Asperger's, or ADHD, or you just tend to over-organize

I implore you to approach the LYT Kit with caution. Sure, it's awesome, but you can't leap to "11" and bypass counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10". The only structure that can work over time, is the structure that slowly emerges over time—validating its own existence through its use.

This kit shows you how to get there, but DO NOT start structuring your "ultimate" system right now. It will fail you, because it will be fragile, because it wasn't forged in the fire of practical usage. You will waste time and enthusiasm—and could possibly burn out.

Let the links do the work.

So [[20220829183036|Trust the process (kit)]] and enjoy the incremental journey of structure emerging organically. As you run into Mental Squeeze Points keep these principles in mind. Keep them handy. But try to stop yourself from over-designing everything today. It won't be helpful. If that's not enough of a warning, please review [[20220829220459|Gall's Law]].


If you're still enthusiastic about the fluid frameworks in the LYT method, then Set Up Your Home Note.

It's circular but true, we become what we do

id : 20220903011423
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Sources MOC
tags:: #source/quote/100, #source/quote/my

It's circular but true, we become what we do. ^f8ca0f

Journaling in the morning is an important habit

id : 20220829194245
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

Journaling in the morning is an important habit

Steps:
Immediately upon waking, roll over and grab your phone or notebook or laptop, and start journaling. Type or write for 5 minutes.

You may find that 5 minutes is difficult to fill, but then after a time, it becomes difficult to stop.

Try to limit yourself to 10 minutes - so you can leverage this jump-start of mental energy into the next golden habit: writing out your daily goals.

Why the Morning Journal is so important

We live in the Information Age. The media - with its news, advertisements, and myriad of distractions - is only a click (or tap) away. (Or with phone "notifications" we don't even have to do anything to have our mental focus hijacked by the avalanche of distractions that haven't earned the right to steal our attention). In this constant buzz of noise-feces, we lose touch with more than just our goals; we lose touch with ourselves - our intuition, our own thoughts, our voice, our own opinion, and the very sense of individuality that makes each of us unique. This is an invisible war for the soul, and we are losing — badly. By all external measures we can claim freedom, yet in the place where it matters most, in our ability to think and question and act on our own volition, we have unwittingly given up our minds to be shackled by the forces of outside stimuli. Stimuli that tells us how to think, that manipulates our emotions, making us incredulously angry at someone or some issue we've never met or likely don't truly understand, and telling us how to feel about it, and giving us talking points for what to share about it. The low-hanging fruit of distraction is tempting, especially when our guard is down or our willpower is low. At these moments, we unconsciously and voluntarily relinquish the rights to our minds to the loudest megaphone. We willingly allow our mind to be hijacked. We place our head in the scabbard, we lock the gate and forget the key, we sleepwalk into slavery - a prison for the mind.

Hopefully now it's clear that the Morning Journal is a fight for control over your life, because it's a battle for your mind. It's a fight for your authenticity. It's a war for the very essence of who you are. It reconnects you to you. It gets you back in touch with the most important voice you need to be listening to: yourself.

Next step: Writing down daily goals in the morning is an important habit


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-06-28
    • created:: 2014-06-28
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

K. Anders Ericsson (kit)

id : 20220825014254
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #people
dates:: 1947 - 2020

K. Anders Ericsson

Made popular the term Deliberate Practice, along with Malcolm Gladwell.

Wiki

K. Anders Ericsson (October, 23, 1947 – June 17, 2020) was a Swedish psychologist and Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University who was internationally recognized as a researcher in the psychological nature of expertise and human performance.

Ericsson studied expert performance in domains such as medicine, music, chess, and sports, focusing exclusively on extended deliberate practice (e.g., high concentration practice beyond one's comfort zone) as a means of how expert performers acquire their superior performance. Critically, Ericsson's program of research served as a direct complement to other research that addresses cognitive ability, personality, interests, and other factors that help researchers understand and predict deliberate practice and expert performance.

Wikipedia

Language MOC

id : 20220829214446
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Library
tags:: #map, #on/language

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Language MOC

  • [[Words MOC]]

  • [[English Language MOC]]
  • [[Chinese Language MOC]]
  • [[French Language MOC]]
  • [[Latin Language MOC]]

Levels of Magnification

id : 20220828194300
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Thinking MOC
tags:: #concept

Levels of Magnification

Analyzing a Problem Through Three Different Levels of Magnification

Use this to define a problem and gain clarity.

I have found it useful to use three different levels of magnification when looking at some Thing and asking the question:

"What's the Problem?"

  • Conceptual (Macro) — This is the high-level perspective, philosophical, theoretical, existential
  • Practical (Meso) — No fancy language, just the actual how-to of something
  • Technical (Micro) — The nuts and bolts, diving deep into the specifics of a thing

See also: Refraction Thinking


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2018-06-18

Library

id : 20220829214515
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Library

Navigate your library of maps with a classification system made specifically for PKM.

The LYT Classification System is lightly modified from the Cutter, Dewey, and Universal Decimal classification systems used in libraries around the world. It will provide you a time-tested foundation as you structure the interests of your digital library.

  • 000 - Knowledge Management
  • 100 - Personal Management
  • 200 - Philosophy & Psychology; Spirituality & Religion
  • 300 - Social Sciences
  • 400 - Communications & Rhetoric; Language & Linguistics
  • 500 - Natural Sciences
  • 600 - Applied Sciences
  • 700 - Art & Recreation
  • 800 - Literature
  • 900 - History & Biography & Geography

It is ready-made to hold your diverse interests. Add some placeholders below.


000 - Knowledge Management

The Meta PKM shows the best practices of knowledge management. I use the LYT Kit to show the power of linked thinking and to empower others to develop their thinking. The [[Mapping MOCs]] is my personal note to wrap my head around the wondrous beauty that MOCs offer. Others include:

  • Notebox | [[LOL]] | [[I want to...]]
  • [[Cartographer's Corner 🗺]] | Commonplace Book | [[Knowledge and memory MOC]]

100 - Personal Management

The Thinking MOC can galvanize my attention; the Concepts MOC can flavor it; and the Habits MOC speaks about how to direct it. Hidden within in the Cabin. Go to my Life Map to brush up on My Virtues and more.

  • [[Posture MOC]] | [[Hormesis MOC]] | [[Breathing Exercises MOC]] | Flowcreation MOC
  • People MOC | Family MOC | [[Prominent People (kit)]]
  • Efforts MOC | [[Life Command ⌘]] | Plans and Reviews
  • Finances MOC | Health MOC

200 - Philosophy, Psychology ; Spirituality, Religion

Is there no limit to this section? I use [[20220829214154|Philosophy MOC (kit)]] as the big note and then point to things like: [[Stoicism MOC]], [[Confucianism MOC]], [[Religion MOC]], [[Taoism MOC]], and whatever else comes up.

[[20220829214535|Psychology MOC (kit)]] is similar but different enough to have its own space.

300 - Social Sciences 👥

The study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society.
While this a very important section, I have found it's a bit more intimate, as strange as that sounds, so I'm hesitant to share too much here. The best place to start is the People MOC. along with.

See also: [[People MOC#Prominent People 🌋|Prominent People 🌋]] | Politics | Society | Law | Relationships

400 - Communications, Language, & Linguistics

A fun section of the library, the 400s contains the underrated and oft-maligned subject of [[Rhetoric MOC]]. And one cannot talk long about rhetoric without talking about Language MOC, [[Words MOC]], and especially [[Figures MOC]]. Not too far behind is the [[Leadership MOC]].

500 - Natural Sciences

A sharp break from the previous section, the 500s explore the natural world and universe in glorious notes like [[Cosmology MOC]] and [[Math MOC]].

See also: Chemistry | Geology | Plants | Animals | [[20220825051121|Systems MOC (kit)]]

600 - Applied Sciences

A natural progression from the previous section, this is where we take the the fundamentals of nature and apply them. My undergrad was in [[Engineering MOC]], which relates to my interest in [[Building Homes MOC]]. Later on, I developed the [[Editing Manual MOC]].

See also: Agriculture | Technology | Medical | [[AI MOC]] | Programming | [[Collective Intelligence MOC]] | [[Genetics MOC]] |

700 - Art & Recreation

Ah the leisures of life. Remember leisure? Few really do. This section could easily balloon.

  • Art MOC | [[Design MOC]] | Architecture | Painting |
  • Film & TV | [[Movies MOC]]
  • Sports | [[Football MOC]]
  • Music | [[Jazz MOC]] | [[Vocals MOC]]
  • [[Cooking MOC]] | Leisure

800 - Literature

If folks barely remember leisure, they likely completely forgot about classical literature. A great shame, neomania...we blind ourselves to some of humanity's greatest hits. Use [[Literature MOC]] as a launchpad.

900 - History & Biography & Geography

I've noticed I'm naturally building up the [[Ancient Greece MOC]], but I haven't cared to build out the [[History MOC]] just yet. The Places MOC is a peculiarly powerful note that has big things in store for it.

The [[Art & Science Storytelling MOC]] look at some great storytellers of history.


Please don't go crazy numbering things. We are just using a pre-made map so we can easily add dots of new interests.

Back to: Home

Life Map

id : 20220831003718
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.
  • Nick, go here [[Life Space™]].

Life Map 🗺

I'm amazed at how many people don't zoom out and consider how to live a good life.

Compass 🧭

These are the dials that determine where I go.

  • My Direction & Drivers
    • 01 - [[My Roles]] | [[My Permissions]]
    • 02 - [[My Environments]] | [[My Tools]]
    • 03 - [[My Experiences]] | [[Life Reflections]]
    • 04 - [[My Virtues]] | [[My Skills]] | [[My Spark List]]
    • 05 - [[My Manifesto]] | [[My Goals]]
    • 06 - [[My Obituary]]

See those numbers above. They don't have to be there. I had a version of this note with them removed. But I like them in this map. For your own life map, do what works best for you!

%%

Off in the distance is my Cabin.

%%

Like begets like

id : 20220829215344
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #concept

Like begets like

It's circular but true, we become what we do.

Like begets like is the natural process of Evolution's Selfish Gene.

Because Natural Selection demands that organisms become more efficient to increase its chances of survival (see Survival of the Fittest).

Said another way, evolution's Selfish Gene has a Prime Directive: survive. It this way, Nature is neutral. It grows what you feed it. You are what you eat.

That means whatever you do, whatever tiny action or thought, creates neural pathways; and neural pathways strengthen with use (see: The neural formation of habits is additive).

Others: You are what you eat. I am what I am.

This is a first principle; perhaps one of the most fundamental first principles...one with major ramifications

Related: [[Mirror Neurons]] (not included in the LYT Kit)

Lindy Effect

id : 20220829194139
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Lindy Effect

The longer I'm around, the longer I'll be around

  • The longer a non-perishable thing has been around, the longer it will be around. Like the spoon. Not like the human.
  • There is no spoon...unless you're talking about the Lindy Effect. Then there is a spoon—and it will be around for at least another couple million years.
  • Things that have been around for a long time (and are non-perishable) are not "aging" like people, but "aging" in reverse.
  • The older something valuable is, the more likely it will still be valuable in 100 years.
  • This is strongly related to Antifragility.

Practical Usage

  • Let the cream rise to the top before you take a sip: I use this when I let the cream of the TV series rise to the top, garnering end-of-year awards before choosing to watch them. ^d5abb0

Wiki

The Lindy effect is a concept that the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things like a technology or an idea is proportional to their current age, so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy.
Where the Lindy effect applies, mortality rate decreases with time.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2015-09

Linking your thinking encourages leaps of insights

id : 20220506063731
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Evergreen notes
tags:: #on/PKM

Linking your thinking encourages leaps of insights

Something amazing happens when you start linking your digital notes. You develop the muscle to make leaps of insights across domains of knowledge. It's truly a super power—and a habit worth cultivating in today's age because "value" is created when strangers on a plane start talking.

As you make rare and unique connections between different disciplines, you start to think more holistically about the underlying patterns inherent in both. These leaps of insight are not only fun, but they are all potential sources of new value creation (along with making you more interesting to interact with).

A hidden benefit of deliberately linking your thinking is that [[20220829214521|Note-making creates unexpected optionality]].

LYT FAQ

id : 20220905191607
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

LYT FAQ

  • So now I have to manage MOCs?
    • Don't let the LYT, MOCs or anything become an "I have to" situation. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to make any map. Just go about your business of making notes for life.
    • The MOC will just hang out. You don't have to tend to it. There are no tasks to manage. You could never open your home note and MOCs for a whole year and they will be fine. Then on Day 366, if you click to them, they will be just as helpful. They are the big friendly giants of your ideaverse.
    • In this way, MOCs are basically just a bunch of stuff living on top of your notes. They should never get in the way of writing/creating—in fact, they should greatly enhance it.
    • See more: What can we learn from nerdy discussions on MOCs
  • So how do I use the fluid frameworks in LYT on a daily basis?
    • On a daily basis, you're just making notes, adding to notes, and not worried about having to structure things. Maybe you add a tag. Maybe a direct link to another note. That's it.
    • Don't worry about MOCs and the home note when you're doing basic writing and creation. You'll know when to make a new MOC because you start to feel a building sense of being overwhelmed. It happens when you have a lot of notes on a subject and need to structure the info.
    • The structuring is cool, but don't let the tail wag the dog :)
  • What's the difference between an MOC and TOC? They seem interchangeable, am I missing something there?
    • The distinction, which serves an important purpose, is an MOC doesn’t have to follow a linear format. It can be constantly reshuffled by you to meet your needs. It’s great for compiling topic-related ideas, notes, concepts.
    • Contrast that with a Table of Contents (TOC). It has one specific and linear order. A TOC should almost always find itself tied to a specific project.
    • So for a book project, you have the broad MOC (like a big work table with papers spread out everywhere); and you’d be building towards the specific, linear TOC, which would be the more traditional “section 2, chapter 1” or whatever.
    • On efforts and projects, I see the MOC and TOC as working in tandem more often than not.
  • I've heard hierarchies and structures are bad.
    • That can be true. But it's also not true.
    • Yes, a note buried deep in a series of cascading folders is harder to access. Folders act to limit a note's availability. They bury notes. This can be bad in that it reduces your potential avenues towards note retrieval. [^1] A note should be able to live freely and connect to as many notes as needed without restriction.
    • That's why MOCs (Maps of Content) are magicians: they don't limit access; they curate it (See Why Categories for Your Notes are a Good Idea). MOCs exist in parallel with all your other notes. It's like having the ability to turn on an augmented overlay on top of your existing notes. They add context without constraint, freedom without friction. (Read more on MOCs at MOCs Overview)
  • How much friction will it take to manage this over time and how will it all fare if there are periods of time when I don't take the minimum amount of care to keep it updated?
    • (@ryanjamurphy): There are “good” and “bad” kinds of knowledge management janitorial work. Good kinds involve discovering new insights and refining your knowledge, bad kinds involve distractions and degrade your work.
    • (@nickmilo): I can only speak from experience, but I have gone months without looking at my digital library, many times. That's actually why I craved and created the home note and MOCs: so I could immediately reconnect with my notes. Maybe it's a philosophy, but everything should just manage itself after it's set up. I don't think of it as extra tasks.

What is LYT and an Ideaverse?

Q: What is an Ideaverse?
It's the universe of ideas that exists between your brain and everything around it—but usually it refers to your digitally linked notes.

Q: Why should I care about an Ideaverse?
A: Do you want your notes to give you value, not just in the short-term, but forever?
Do you lose ideas? Do you have trouble combining ideas? Are your notes scattered everywhere? Are you drowning in too much information? Have you lost the signal from the noise? If you answered yes to any of these, read on.

Q: I'm still reading...So, who benefits from having an Ideaverse?
A: People who write and think a lot. People who don't want to forget important ideas. People who develop ideas. People who value the ability to build upon their knowledge over years instead of letting it slip away to the ravages of time.

Q: Give me specific types of people please.
A: Students, academics, and life-long learners...makers, content creators, essay-writers...non-fiction and fiction writers...productivity and project-focused people...and life designers and anyone trying to live their best life.

Q: And what are ideas?
Ideas are solutions to problems. They are original creations or thoughts. They are new insights built on shoulders existing sources or previous work. With a dynamic ideaverse, you will finally be able to work rapidly and fluidly with ideas in ways that were previously not easy or even possible. A dynamic ideaverse holds real value for anyone who works with ideas.


Q: Okay then...What is LYT?
A: LYT stands for "Linking Your Thinking". It is a proven framework for knowledge management based on using links to enhance your thinking. It articulates the theory of [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]], and uses higher-order notes called "Maps of Content" (MOCs). See LYT Framework.

Use LYT to create your ideaverse.

Q: Is LYT the same thing as zettelkasten?
A: No. While many argue anything with linked notes written in your own words is a zettelkasten, the truth is that a zettelkasten has an extremely narrow focus: "writing for output". That's it.

But LYT is a framework that extends the vision, scope, and capability of a zettelkasten. It can be used for anything that requires thinking and writing. It is optimized for people to become the best sensemakers possible. And it provides new frameworks to accomplish this—especially Maps of Content.

The LYT method enhances how you write, think, and navigate with your ideaverse.


Q: Please further explain this relationship between LYT and an Ideaverse.
A: Basically, the LYT frameworks are what give an ideaverse it's value. It provides flexible frameworks to allow your ideaverse to thrive for the rest of your life. Using LYT frameworks adds an optional layer to enhance writing, thinking, and navigating.


Q: How does LYT help with writing, thinking, and navigating?
A: In several synergistic ways. Because it provides comforting, reliable navigation; it lowers anxiety. Because it's flexibility, it allows for non-rigid thinking. The list of benefits is deep. See Benefits of LYT frameworks


Q: Do I need LYT?
A: No you don't, especially when you have less than a couple hundred notes. But you may want it. You'll know if you do. It's starts with a growing sense of anxiety and overwhelm...Like a vampire thirsting for blood, you'll find yourself gravitating toward a the creation of your first MOC, so you can work with several notes at the same time. See Is LYT For Me.


Q: What's an MOC?
A: An MOC stands for "Map of Content". MOCs may be the most important thinking tool you can use with your zettelkasten. MOCs Overview


Q: How would you describe Maps of Content?
A: An MOC is just a note where you collect a bunch of related notes, then you stare at it, and think. The three core purposes to use an MOC for are to: gather, develop, and navigate ideas.


Q: Aren't MOCs just another name for an index note?
While an MOC can act as a static index solely for navigation, its power comes from using it to gather, develop, collide, and refactor ideas.

In this way, MOCs become an entirely new tool for thinking in The Age of the Linked Note.

LYT Framework

id : 20220809192042
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

The LYT Framework

LYT stands for "Linking Your Thinking".

The LYT framework super-charges your digital library by giving you the ability to use fluid frameworks—like MOCs and a Home note—to enhance your ability to find things, create things, and develop ideas over time.

Why LYT?

Equipping your library with special notes like a Home note and "Maps of Content" enhances your working experience.

It is robust, flexible, and able to match your changing needs—which are undoubtably unique to you—both today and deep into your future.

What is the LYT Framework

LYT provides a framework for your notes. You can find them. You can work with them. And this framework encourages them to grow more valuable over time.

  1. The Home note - The Home note can act as your home base to ground you, and as a launching pad into your note library.
  2. Maps of Content (MOCs) - These are like having curated worktables with all your relevant index cards placed on them. MOCs will help you overcome the overwhelming anxiety that can arise from having notes scattered everywhere. More on this later.
  3. Other Fluid Frameworks - Adding structure to your notes has gotten a bad rap lately. But if you know how to keep your frameworks fluid, you'll get the best of both worlds: order and chaos; excellent note retrieval and the serendipity of discovery. More on this later.

The forest keeps winding...

You reach a particularly interesting fork in the overgrown trail. You can continue on the main path and read about the Benefits of LYT frameworks.

Or you can start mapping the forest's unique landscape. Just go to: Set Up Your Home Note.

Or, you can climb the tallest Ent-like tree to get your bearings at a note called Home.

LYT Glossary

id : 20220907043756
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

LYT Glossary

  • LYT - An acronym for "Linking Your Thinking".

LYT Terms

  • Mental Squeeze Point - The point in any endeavor where the amount of information begins to overwhelm you. Either you overcome the squeeze point, or your project gets stuck.
  • [[20220828225447|MOC (Map of Content)]], pronounced (EM-OH-SEE) - A note that mainly has links to other notes, thus "mapping" the contents of multiple notes in your digital library.
  • Home note - Your Home note is your north star, navigating you to your MOCs. It keeps the entire system organized.
    • MOCs help you gather, develop, and navigate your ideas.
  • Idea Emergence - The process of how the ideas you encounter go from the "nothingness" to the "somethingness"—and how those ideas grow in richness, complexity, and personally meaningful value over time.
  • Top-down Thinking - Starting with structure and a clear destination. e.g. A folder-based framework.
    • PRO: Keeps you on track. CON: Stifles emergent thinking.
  • Bottom-up Thinking - Starting with a various ideas and connecting them organically.
    • PRO: Allows for emergent thinking. CON: Can feel a little too chaotic at times.
  • Middle-out Thinking - Developing a fluid structure that creates simultaneous cycles of top-down and bottom-up thinking. e.g. LYT!
    • PRO: Encourages next level thinking. BUT: Requires learning the technique and being able to balance structure/chaos.
  • Fluid Frameworks - Any helpful framework, or structure, that helps but doesn't hinder note retrieval and/or idea management. They are adaptable, fitting your evolving needs.
  • Refraction Thinking - Thinking about ONE thing, through the lens of ANOTHER thing.
  • Evergreen notes - Evergreen notes are focused on a single idea and written mostly in your own words. They naturally accrue more links over time.
  • Ideaverse - An ideaverse is the universe of ideas that exists between your brain and every place you think.
    • It consists of all the spaces you have in your life to find and develop ideas—whether you plan to share them with the world or just share them with your future self.
    • Most often, when someone says "my ideaverse" they are talking more specifically about their collection of digitally linked notes.

A Fuller PKM Glossary (in the works)

  • [[20220831002818|Data view notes (defn)]]
  • [[20220829190822|Note-makers]]
  • [[20220909043722|Note-takers]]
  • PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) - The process of individuals making, using, organizing, connecting, combining, collaborating, and creating with their personal notes.

LYT Kit

id : 20220910222356
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

LYT Kit MOC

This is the "Map of Content" for the LYT Kit. Here you can:

  • Learn about the LYT Framework.
  • Learn about how MOCs literally re-write the game.
  • Create living notes in a process called note-making.
  • Use MOCs to generate massive amounts of personal value.
  • Build your Home note so you can effectively scale your PKM.
  • Use the ACCESS folder structure to effectively hold all your notes.
  • Learn about how to use "efforts" instead of projects.

Let's get started...


Overview of the LYT Framework

Start note-making to create notes that matter

Learn how note-making is different from note-taking, and how it generates your best insights.

  • [[20220905000723|On the process of note-making]]

Learn how to use MOCs for massive ideation

MOCs help you do three things: gather, develop, and navigate your ideas.

  • The 3 Phases of MOCs
    • [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Gather]]
    • [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Collide]]
    • Habits MOC - Navigate
  • [[20220829214605|The 3 Phases of MOCs, a coda]]

Build your Home note

If you want a healthy and complete network of knowledge, you will want a home note.

Set up the ACCESS folder structure

In just 7 folders, you can have a folder structure you use for the rest of your life.

  • [[20220830175345|+ About Encounters]]
  • [[20220903011037|+ About Atlas]]
  • [[+ About Calendar]]
  • [[20220923162426|+ About Cards]]
  • [[20220830175524|+ About Extras]]
  • [[20220825083315|+ About Sources]]
  • [[20220913014938|+ About Spaces]]

Use "efforts" instead of "projects"

Why do "projects" feel so wrong when working with ideas? Why does a term like "efforts" feel more truthful? Let's explore the differences and what it might mean for your efforts.


Extra stuff

Explore how evergreen notes work

Note-makers create living notes that are able to grow in value and evolve over time. Some people call these kinds of notes "evergreen".

Learn about linked notes, LYT, and PKM


Back to Home

LYT Kit Release Notes

id : 20220902001106
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/meta

LYT Kit 7 - Release Notes

Released 2022-09-13

Headlines

  • Vintage Home note
  • 16 empowered maps in the Home note
  • ACCESS folders streamlined to 10 folders
  • Introducing "Efforts"

Details

  • 286 notes
  • Vintage Home note.
    • Remade the Home note to match the original version that brought me so much joy.
  • 16 empowered maps in the Home note. Rebuilt every map for clarity and power.
    • Thinking MOC, Inbox, Notebox, Outbox, Daily Notes
    • Library, People MOC, Sources MOC, Concepts MOC
    • Efforts, Plan and Review
    • Health MOC, Finance MOC, Life Map, LYT Kit and Meta PKM
  • Streamlined ACCESS folder structure for an easier start.
  • Introduced "Efforts" as an alternative to "Projects".
    • Added the "Efforts" map to the Home note.
  • Improved several data views to power up your navigating experience.
  • Did general clean-up.

LYT Kit 6 - Release Notes

Released 2022-05-11

  • 309 notes
  • ACCESS folder structure
  • Revised many of the notes for clarity
  • Added Callouts explaining the broken links in some notes leading to parts of my personal PKM unavailable in the LYT Kit
  • Recorded a series of e-mail lessons exploring some PKM fundamentals as well as working within the ACCESS folder structure to offer a bit more guidance in exploring this vault
  • Added several new MOCs, indexes, and data views
  • General clean-up

LYT Mode Theme

id : 20220831004307
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: Cybertron Theme
tags:: #on/design

LYT Mode Theme

LYT Mode is for "Linking Your Thinking". It invokes sensemaking and lateral thinking. It was designed by @ceciliamay on commission from Nick Milo for the purpose of evolving his Cybertron theme. Cyberpunk-inspired,

  • [[LYT Mode Theme#History of LYT Mode]]
  • [[LYT Mode Theme#How to Use LYT Mode]]
    • [[LYT Mode Theme#Alternative Checkboxes]]
  • [[LYT Mode Theme#Supported Plugins]]
  • [[LYT Mode Theme#Features]]

History of LYT Mode

This Obsidian theme is meant to be the definitive evolution of my first love: the Cybertron Theme theme.

@nickmilo and @ceciliamay crossed paths in an LYT workshop. At the same time, Cecilia was designing the winner of Obsidian's 2021 Theme of the Year with the now legendary theme, Primary. Before the winner was known, Nick reached out to the public for help to take Cybertron to the next level. It was going to take more CSS & Design skill than what he could muster. Luckily, Cecilia raised her hand. Then Nick commissioned Cecilia May to design LYT Mode and this is the result.

Features

  1. Evolved color palette from Cybertron comparison
    • Special Colors for Markdown Emphasis
  2. Beautiful readable fonts originally made for each other: DM Sans DM Mono
  3. Support for both Mobile and Desktop
  4. Support for all Obsidian views: Legacy, Live Preview, and Reading
  5. Custom Icons
  6. Minimal animation for more focused work
  7. LYT Mode Syntax Highlighting
  8. Tighter Sidebar Line Height spacing to allow you to see more notes, tags, and links
  9. Grayed out Markdown Formatting (except for headers)
  10. Bigger Popovers
  11. Design Support for Callouts
  12. Support for Slides
  13. Support for Publish

Supported Plugins

LYT Mode focused on emphasizing support for markdown or note-native features, as well as all of Obsidian’s core features and visual cues. That being said, LYT Mode should work with most plugins but this list shows plugins given extra love or design support.

  • Calendar by Liam Cain
  • Sliding Panes (Andy’s Mode) by death_au
  • Kanban by mgmeyers
  • Excalidraw by Zsolt Viczian
  • Dataview by Michael Brenan
  • Hover Editor by nothingislost

Additional Details

Alternative Checkboxes aka Icon Bullets

LYT Mode also offers additional syntax for checkboxes. These act like bullet journaling “legends”. Others use alternate checkboxes for quick visual references.

Syntax Description
- [ ] Unchecked
- [x] Checked
- [>] Rescheduled
- [<] Scheduled
- [!] Important
- [-] Cancelled
- [/] In Progress
- [?] Question
- [*] Star
- [n] Note
- [l] Location
- [i] Information
- [I] Idea
- [S] Amount
- [p] Pro
- [c] Con
- [b] Bookmark
- [f] Fire
- [k] Key
- [w] Win
- [u] Up
- [d] Down

LYT Notes 1 (Example)

id : 20220831005426
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: My Newsletter MOC
tags:: #output/newsletter
dates:: 2021-02-21

LYT Kit, Pace layers, and the power of language

I've been secretly revising the LYT Kit over the past few weeks, and since you are obviously into this sort of stuff, I wanted to share with you some of the changes I've made so far:

  • I have refined the Home note 🏡. It's even cleaner.
  • I've incorporated nested tags. Nested tags are a big development.
  • I'm really leaning towards taking away the numbers on my top ten MOCs (like 010 Mindsets) because it's led some people to get really caught up thinking they have to number everything. But what do you think? Before I announce anything, I'm curious if you have a strong opinion on this.
  • I took away the Calendar MOC because: I didn't use it, other people got the wrong ideas about it, and frankly, the "Calendar" plugin is wonderful.
  • I shifted my Back Matter meta-data-y stuff to Front Matter; and I hid most of the Front Matter to keep control over the story being told. (Note: YAML functionality isn't quite there yet, but ask me again in a few months!)
  • I worked in a lot more "Art of Link Curation", where the creator responsibly guides the reader with fewer, more curated links. It's basically an attempt to use "Choose Your Own Adventure" concepts to improve reader engagement.
  • I hid Easter eggs in the forest :)

You can actually re-download the new version using the link at the top, if you want to give it a spin.

(By the way, would you like me to do an in-depth walkthrough of the LYT Kit? Like a 20 minute video? I feel like it might be helpful to unpack how this can scale with you over the decades to come. Reply to this email and let me know!)


On Pace Layers

I must admit, I wasn't aware of the term "Pace Layers" until last year. Have you heard of it? Stewart Brand is someone worth listening to! He proposes "six significant levels of pace and size in the working structure of a robust and adaptable civilization."

Read this, but while you do, consider it through the lens of Pace Layers as a thinking tool. I.e., how can this model be used to help you make sense of other things you encounter?


On the power of language

George Orwell understood the power of language. In his novel 1984, the totalitarian government enforces a language called "Newspeak," which has an extremely limited vocabulary. This brutal simplification of word choice actually prevents the people from being able to articulate the complex thoughts and emotions they're having. It imprisons their expression.

Fast forward to the 2020's, and who would have thought we'd imprison ourselves...wearing our simple vocabularies as some sort of badge of honor(?)—and scared that using the big words will somehow screw with our identity... ...more on this soon


👣 A LYT footnote 🎵

The noise 🗑 is deafening. I promise to focus on the signal 🌿. For me, the signal is high-value, evergreen stuff like:

  • how to think better and with more joy
  • how to be a better note-maker instead of just a note-taker
  • getting past the shiny surface and asking the deep questions
  • spotlighting 🔦 people and ideas that have stood the test of time ✨

So until next time... [[Stay Connected]],

Nick

LYT Notes 2 (Example)

id : 20220831005437
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: My Newsletter MOC
tags:: #output/newsletter
dates:: 2021-02-28
X:: [[20220829225600|150 - The Almagest]]

Obsidian Timelapse, The Almagest, and the strangeness of what we believe

The feedback on the draft of LYT Kit, Version 5 has been plentiful and even a bit passionate. Half of you like the numbers (like “010 Mindsets”), and half of you don’t.

Here’s what’s most clear: the LYT Kit should help newcomers see what it would look like if they wanted to do certain things (like numbering notes, or using tags like “meetings” to chronologically sort their notes). I’ll make sure to show those examples, especially in the highly requested LYT Kit video :)

Thanks for all the feedback; it’s very much appreciated!

On Obsidian “Timelapse”

Some features change the game, others just make it more fun. Obsidian “Timelapse” is definitely in the “fun” category. Here’s my 3-minute showcase on Youtube of four different vaults set to some Norwegian’s music (maybe you’ve heard it before?).

How to do a timelapse? Go to the graph view, hit Command-P (on a Mac), and start typing “timelapse” until you see “Start graph timelapse animation”, then hit enter. The animation will start.

On why everyone believed the book that said the moon doubled in size each year

Ptolemy was a Greek guy living around 150 CE in Alexandria, Egypt, where the biggest library in the world was.

And so Ptolemy did what any self-respecting librarian and star-lover would do: He read and stared at the stars…a lot.

All that reading and staring led to something massive. He assembled and created a unified theory of the cosmos known as “The Almagest” (which basically means “The Greatest”). This text was so good, it was treated as 100% true for 1500 years!

Except, for it to have been 100% true, the Moon was supposed to double in size and then shrink back each year! But, it doesn’t. So why did really smart people believe in The Almagest? Because it could consistently tell you where the stars would be at any time of the year. (So who cares about that Moon business!)

Even after Copernicus published his heliocentric theory in 1543 (casting major doubt on The Almagest), it took another century until Kepler did what no one else could: he gave up his deeply ingrained beliefs. Kepler didn’t just think outside the box, he thought outside the circle! (That story is for another time.)

The Almagest is the centerpiece of a fascinating exploration—not into the stars—but into how we form our beliefs. Here are some personal thoughts on the strangeness of what we believe:

  • The Almagest shows our ability to force fit incorrect solutions, and then believe those solutions (ignoring the inconvenient parts).
  • The Almagest shows how we conflate some truth with the whole truth.
  • When reality disproves our beliefs, it’s easier to change the narrative protecting our beliefs, than to actually change our beliefs.
  • We just believe whatever we want to believe.

It makes me wonder:

  • What blind spots are we each living in right now?

👣 A LYT footnote 🎵

The noise 🗑 is deafening. I promise to focus on the signal 🌿. For me, the signal is high-value, evergreen stuff like:

  • how to think better and with more joy
  • how to be a better note-maker instead of just a note-taker
  • getting past the shiny surface and asking the deep questions
  • spotlighting 🔦 people and ideas that have stood the test of time ✨

So until next time... [[Stay Connected]],

Nick

LYT Notes 3 (Example)

id : 20220831005500
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: My Newsletter MOC
tags:: #output/newsletter
dates:: 2021-03-07

Pace Layers, Idea Emergence, and the "Long Now"

These LYT Notes aren't just about spewing out 20 different shiny links to click on. They are about enriching our point of view on valuable things—long after we initially encounter them.

That's why we're adding some umami to "Pace Layers" 🌈.

Since I mentioned Pace Layers two weeks ago, your insights have enriched the concept for me. Here are two that I've really enjoyed:

Hojae L. on Pace Layers and LYT frameworks

(slightly edited from Discord)

  • The article from Nick's Feb, 21st newsletter talks about pace layers in context of civilization/culture.
  • The original idea by Frank Duffy apparently thought of it in terms of architecture and buildings.
  • Each layer of the Pace Layers have different "speeds".
  • This stood out to me from the article: "Each layer is functionally different from the others and operates somewhat independently, but each layer influences and responds to the layers closest to it in a way that makes the whole system resilient."
  • One is not better than the other (In fact I think it's about how you need different layers for civilization to be healthy....)

In terms of LYT I can see how a Home note or higher-level MOCs can be considered "slow" layers - they take time to develop, "integrate shock".

Atomic notes can be "Fast" layers. The name "atomic" already gives a hint of discreteness or discontinuity.


I'm so glad Hojae related Pace Layers to the LYT frameworks! For those of you who don't know, the LYT frameworks are based around the idea of "Idea Emergence":

Idea Emergence is the process of how you the ideas you encounter go from the "nothingness" to the "somethingness"—and how those ideas grow in richness and complexity over time.

In this way, I have found Pace Layers to be a good fit to what's happening in the LYT frameworks—except in reverse!

  • You're linking a bunch of small notes together. This is basically the fast-moving chaos of a zettelkasten...
  • ...which leads to you assemble several links into a higher-order note that we'll call a "Map of Content" (MOC).
    • This is an emergent structure (i.e. direct links leading to MOCs)
  • ...which over time lead to more mature, more convergent structures (like a Home dashboard-y note).
  • But even as the Home note is being shaped from the faster moving layers, it can't help but to subtly shape the faster moving MOCs it links to.

And that's how Idea Emergence beautifully exhibits the dynamics of Pace Layers!


And to add to the depth of our understanding about Pace Layers, Mike B, relates it to Time.


Mike B. on Pace Layers and the "Long Now"

(slightly edited from Discord)

The link to Pace Layers in @NickMilo's newsletter mentioned "The Long Now". I wondered how Pace Layers related to this concept, and I found this from Brian Eno:

"Now" is never just a moment. The Long Now is the recognition that the precise moment you're in grows out of the past and is a seed for the future. The longer your sense of Now, the more past and future it includes. – Essay: The Big Here and Long Now - Brian Eno

-The quote resonates with me about making notes and building a knowledge management system as much as it does about having a "Long Now" view of life, the universe, and everything.

  • *"Note making" has long had the idea of future-proofing and making notes for your future self.
  • Instilling a "longer sense of Now" into our notes and system, I think, is the key to making our notes resilient.
  • And I believe it is a broader and better expression of how we should approach making notes, and I find it a little more poetic than future-proofing.*

*I also think there is something to pace layering regarding our time and interactions with our note-making. *


I'm so happy Mike shared these insights around Time. Thanks Mike!

This makes me wonder:

  • How can I try to incorporate the "longer sense of now" into the conversation for future-proofing?
  • How well does a clock represent the dynamics of Pace Layers and the "Long Now", with the different paces of the second hand, the minute hand, and the hour hand?

My mind needs time to chew on this...

LYT Notes 4 (Example)

id : 20220831005526
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: My Newsletter MOC
tags:: #output/newsletter
dates:: 2021-03-14

On a "hiding in plain sight" advantage to using folders

Links are revolutionary. And yet, there is still a place for folders and tags in a healthy knowledge management system (don't let the zealots tell you otherwise).

Here's one hidden advantage to using folders in a link-based world: easy exclusion.

Example: You have a folder with private medical and financial information called "Private". You want to search for "health" and don't want to see noisy results from your daily notes and other random notes. So in either the file searches or the graph searches you can just type health path:Private. And boom! You'll receive noise-free results :)

Imagine that, folders being used to flexibly silo information from each other!

Here are the three notations to keep handy when using folder search filters:

path:folder
path:"folder with multiple words"
-path:folder - With the minus sign you can exclude folders from search. If you save too many words from other people, you might want to get comfortable with your_search -path:Sources , or something like that.

(There is a similar ability with Anti-Tags I'll try to talk about next week.)

On refactoring: the mini-epiphany of evergreen note-making

When we exercise the bad habit of excessive note-taking, we rarely return to the thing we took notes on, because we're off bumbling down the never-ending trail of over-consumption. And we even more rarely ever build it, develop it, and refactor it.

So how is note-making better? You not only spend more time actively thinking, but you create an environment that encourages you to continue to develop those thoughts. Here's a simple example I can share with you. Try reading both of these out loud:

George Orwell understood the power of language. In his novel 1984, the totalitarian government enforces a language called "Newspeak," which has an extremely limited vocabulary. This brutal simplification of word choice actually prevents the people from being able to articulate the complex thoughts and emotions they're having. It imprisons their expression.

That was from the "LYT Notes 1" newsletter. Not bad, but two weeks later, as I was thinking about how to introduce the wonders and joy of the Thesaurus in a video, I actually rewrote that into something clearer, more impactful...better:

George Orwell understood the power of language. In his novel 1984, the Big Brother government enforces a language called "NewSpeak" that eliminates words. They get rid of "bad". They get rid of "great". Now there's just "ungood" and "double-plus good". This brutal collapse of word choice imprisons our ability to express ourselves...our ability to articulate the complex thoughts and emotions we're having.

Can you see how this note is growing with me? And how it's growing in value and complexity over time? That's a mini-epiphany, isn't it?! That's the power of evergreen note-making.

So, how do you save the old version? How do you work with the new version? Here's the full note where you can get a glimpse into this process of both "versioning" & "refactoring".

On Cohort 3 finishing the LYT Workshop

We had 7 main sessions, 7 breakout sessions, 5 special sessions, and 2 additional sessions for extra capstone presentations—all leading to over 30 hours of LIVE time together!

As much as I'm proud of the curriculum, it's the assembly of fascinating and friendly people that is fast becoming an equally powerful draw. Just yesterday, we had our final three capstone presentations from a director in Slovenia, a Buddhist monk in Australia, and an experienced business consultant in "regenerative management" in the US. (They are other things as well, I don't mean to typecast!)

I love these workshops and remain hugely grateful for their existence. But that said, the next LIVE workshop won't be until later this summer.

On the upcoming Guided Self-Study

But there is a solution for those of you who don't want to wait. The 6-week Guided Self-Study program starts on April 6th. Along with the curriculum and access to the LYT community, there will also be 3+ live hours (the orientation plus a couple coach-led sessions).

Registration will open next week on March 21st. I'll share the details then.

As always, Stay Connected!

Nick

PS: I'm creating a "Choose Your Own Adventure" Obsidian Training Experience. It'll cost basically nothing and have random, ongoing updates. It should cost WAY more but I don't care. I'll let you know when it's ready.

PPS: I'm getting closer to having that LYT Kit walkthrough video ready for you.

LYT Notes 5 (Example)

id : 20220831005554
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: My Newsletter MOC
tags:: #output/newsletter
dates:: 2021-03-21

On Damian Lillard getting the reps

This Tuesday in the NBA, something notable happened on the court. Down 17 points with under 6 minutes remaining, Damian Lillard led his team to an improbable comeback win, scoring 20 points in the final quarter (and 50 points for the entire game).

But it was the post-game interview that I found the most notable:

Shaq: To all the little kids out there, how do you become a lethal shooter?

Damian: I think it's just putting a lot of time into it...that it's a lot of reps...whether people are watching or whether you get credit for it or not, you just, you put the time in, and you do it at a game pace, you do it with focus, you do it...at the end of your workout when you're tired (and you probably don't want to do it): just things like that, over and over and over and over. Over the years.

You get better from the reps, but I think more so than just physically, you get better mentally and more confident in it because you've done it so often you don't when you tired, you've done it when you didn't want to.

And then in the moments, you know end of the game, whether it's first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, a tough shot, the easy shot, you you got the ultimate confidence that is gonna go in and I think confidence is the biggest thing for shooters right next to just getting the reps in.


Let's re-strengthen and rebuild our thinking muscles. The good news is: just like our physical muscles, we can make big changes in relatively short amounts of time. We just have to get the reps.

  • How do you get the reps?
  • How can you get better reps?

This is one of the most essential concepts to live by in my opinion. Here's the note I have on reps in the LYT Kit. (Notice how it's already exhibiting evergreen-ness by already connecting to Damian?)

On the Anti-Tag

The anti-tag sounds like some sort of super-villain, but it’s actually just another trick employed by a wily PKM’er.

Let’s say I use a daily note but after tons and tons of daily notes, my graph is useless. One solution is to have all your daily notes in a folder, like “Timestamps” and filter out that entire folder with the notation: -path:Timestamps (like I emailed about last week).

You can also do this with an anti-tag. Imagine every daily note of yours has the tag "#my/daily. You can filter out all of our daily notes from a search by adding the notation:

  • -tag:my/daily

But depending on your needs, you may develop the desire to slice your notes with an even fineer razor. Consider the following notation:

  • #my/daily -my/journal

Using this search string, I can look at all my daily entries except ones with personal information that have also been tagged with the journal tag.

I'm not suggesting you do this, but it's worth knowing how you can use tags to NOT find something.

LYT Space (kit)

id : 20220829214529
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.
  • Nick, go here [[LYT Home]].

LYT Space 🔆 (kit)

When you add links to folder-based PKM, you need MOCs. It's actually quite simple. For every space you have in your life, you just deploy the MAPS folder structure:

  • MOCs
  • Areas
  • Projects
  • Support notes

MOCs

MOCs give me a single place go for a given topic.

Purpose MOC
Make/share products, services, value Content Creation MOC
Manage the workshop experience Workshops MOC
Support community Community MOC
Manage team and extended team Team MGMT MOC
Manage technicals Technical Admin MOC
Manage financials Financials MOC

Areas

Areas have the following qualities:

  • They are ongoing.
  • They are subfolders containing relevant notes.
Purpose Area
Hold all LYT Kit notes here LYT Kit
Hold all Workshop notes here Workshops
Hold all Flight School notes here Flight School
Hold all Newsletter artifacts Newsletters
Hold all Event artifacts LYT Events

Projects

Projects have end dates.

  • [[LYT Projects 🏗]]

Support notes


What is the mission of LYT?
Broadly speaking, the mission of LYT is to empower and enfranchise large numbers of people to think critically and creatively; fluidly and flexibly; connectively and joyfully—in a way that accumulates in value for them over time.

This will lead to:

  1. More thinking, better thinking
  2. The ability to stay psychologically grounded in a turbulent world
  3. More unique and valuable contributions

Mary Wollstonecraft (kit)

id : 20220825014137
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Mary Shelley]]
tags:: #people
dates:: 1759 - 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft

Wiki

Mary Wollstonecraft (, also UK: ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, received more attention than her writing. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.

During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

After Wollstonecraft's death, her widower published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important.

After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement. Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38 leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, [[Mary Shelley]], who would become an accomplished writer and author of Frankenstein.

Wikipedia

Mental Squeeze Point

id : 20220627045431
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

Mental Squeeze Point

A Mental Squeeze Point is when your unsorted knowledge becomes so messy it overwhelms and discourages you. Either you are equipped with frameworks to overcome the squeeze point, or you are discouraged and possibly abandon your project. This is usually followed by yet another search for the next shiny thing that will make all the difference. ^64cf60a6

The Mental Squeeze Point is an emotion. It's something you feel, whether or not you're consciously aware of it. Try to be. Try to be aware of when you feel discouraged, or overwhelmed, or disappointed with yourself, or unhappy with your efforts. It's possible that's the form that the mental squeeze point has taken.

Perhaps the best way to overcome these squeeze points are to create a new safe space to assemble and organize the knowledge you're currently working on—before it completely overwhelms you. That dedicated space for thinking is called an MOC (Map of Content).

See: MOCs Overview

Meta PKM

id : 20220829214451
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Almost all content and links have been removed.
  • This is stuff covered in the LYT Workshop.
  • Nick, go here [[My PKM MOC]].

Meta PKM

Hi Future Self 👋 Here are "best practices" for managing your PKM system.

  • Managing my PKM system
    • [[My PKM Folders]]
    • [[My PKM Tags]]
    • [[My PKM Metadata]]
    • [[My PKM Queries]]
  • Managing my PKM workflows ♽
    • What are my "best practice" workflows for processing the world of ideas?
    • [[My PKM Workflows - Global Guidelines]]
    • [[My PKM Workflows - Inputs + Oldputs]]
    • [[My PKM Workflows - Outputs]]

Meta-Skills for Flowcreation

id : 20220505230938
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Meta-skills for Flowcreation

What's the goal here? The goal is to Balance Challenge and Skill to get into flow. Balancing Challenge and Skill is basically the meta-meta-skill. On a conceptual level, that's what we're always trying to do when we're going after high quality experiences in life.

Here are the mental steps—the meta-skills—surrounding conscious flowcreation:

  1. Awareness of your current state
  2. Creating the Conditions of Flow
  3. Maintain your Flow — Check out the Four Factors of Flow and learn how you can use these factors to govern and control the levers of flow.
  4. Turnover and refresh yourself

%%
Extra

How Flowcreation skills relate to The Path of Excellence

We naturally do certain things in a certain way when we are improving our skills in a certain domain (say, playing an instrument). We can identify six steps on The Path of Excellence. Below, we can view the skills of flowcreation through the lens of how they relate to the six steps on The Path of Excellence.

  1. Skill of Framing the Situation (Frame)
  2. Skill of Preparing your Environment (Prepare)
  3. Skill of Committing to It (Commit)
  4. Skill of Directing Attention (Focus/Do)
  5. Skill of Finding Fast Feedback (Feedback)
  6. Skill of Well-timed Turnovers (Turnover)

%%

Method of Loci

id : 20220825050256
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: MOCs Overview
tags:: #concept, #note/boat🚤

Method of Loci (LO-KIE in Latin)

The Ancient Greeks and Romans filled their minds with tomes of knowledge that they could recall when needed.

The underlying principle was the "Method of Loci" (loci being Latin for "places").

Loci (LO-KIE in classic Latin; LO-SIGH in English. I prefer the Latin actually.)

Later:
Spatial constellation
Research backing this up
Mind palace links

Wiki

It is a strategy of memory enhancement by visualizing familiar spatial environments to improve the recall of information...The method relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (kit)

id : 20220825014351
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #people
dates:: 1934 - 2021

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the author of [[1990 - Flow]] (not included in the LYT Kit). Flow remains one of the most influential books on my thinking.

Extra

Wiki

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of Flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He is the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.

Wikipedia

MOCs (defn)

id : 20220506040841
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: MOCs Overview
tags:: #on/PKM

MOC (Map of Content)

pronounced (EM-OH-SEE)

A note that mainly has links to other notes, thus "mapping" the contents of multiple notes in your digital library.

While an MOC can function as a boring index, it is actually an entirely new thinking tool that can take your ideation to the next level.

MOCs help you gather, develop, and navigate your ideas.

MOCs are both workbenches and maps

id : 20220813004739
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

MOCs are both workbenches and maps


You enter your personal warehouse.
You can freely add a limitless amount of workbenches.


You gather and collect relevant notes and place them on a new workbench.


You collide and craft those notes.



...and you create something special.


Then you connect your newly crafted map with the rest of your library.

MOCs are Dialectics

id : 20220829214510
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

MOCs are Dialectics

Ideas are often forged in argument where opposing propositions are set against each other.

This is what happens when notes are placed in a room together and forced to figure things out.

Ideas bump and jostle. Some combine into something greater. Some split apart and stand on their own. Some are challenged and grow stronger, others are challenged and go away. Some are born into creation out of necessity.

MOCs are Dialectics

MOCs create the conditions of a Hegelian dialectic, with you acting as arbiter. Notes enter with some sort of unique idea (Thesis). They encounter conflicts with each other (Antithesis). After many arguments, a generally agreed-upon spatial arrangement is reached (Synthesis).

This is super powerful. But it's worth considering [[The pros and cons of the Hegelian Dialectic]].


Consider how MOCs are like Salons

The 18th century "Salons" were strong dialectical environments. Those salons represent a gathering of people to exchange ideas. Let's view salons through the lens of "knowledge management". Salons are:

A "gathering of ideas" and a "space to allow ideas to interact and"support" or "extend" or "challenge" other ideas" - [[Bob Bain]]

and

A "sort of emergent democratic process" - [[Steen Comer]]

MOCs encourage flexible non-destructive thinking

id : 20220702022505
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #on/PKM

MOCs encourage flexible non-destructive thinking

MOCs allow for flexible idea rearrangement because you can map the same bits of information in completely different ways.

Take a second to unpack what's going on here. This highlights a profound but under-appreciated aspect of MOCs.

MOCs allow for limitless interpretations. The only limit is your imagination.

Check out (3) extra MOCs below. They all use the exact same 19 concepts, but for different purposes. This type of awesome relational/positional thinking doesn't happen with a rigid table of contents.

Concepts by category

These are random categories that I chose because they make sense to me. Yours might be entirely different; and yet we both profit immensely from the exercise.

For Strategy

For Improvement

Natural Selection

Finding Balance

Dealing with Aggression

For Expanding Perspective

  • [[20220512053748|Rubik's Cube]]
  • [[20220824213329|Munger's Mental Models]]

Concepts by different categories

Goal-Oriented, Fairly Actionable and Practical Concepts

Thinking Oriented

Heavyweight Concepts

Other Mind-Jostling Concepts

Unsorted

  • Aikido
  • [[20220824213329|Munger's Mental Models]]

Concepts by A-Z sorting

A-Z manual lists are usually a waste of time because they will just become outdated. Just use #concept instead.


MOCs Overview

id : 20220828225447
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

MOCs Overview

This is a brief overview of MOCs.

  • MOC stands for Maps of Content because these notes map the contents of some of your notes.
  • MOC is pronounced EM-OH-CEE.
  • MOCs help you gather, develop, and navigate ideas.

When to use MOCs

The ability to know when and how to make an MOC is a key skill in overcoming overwhelm and project slowdown.

Whenever you start to feel that tickle of overwhelm (Mental Squeeze Point), that's when you need to become a cartographer of your own content and create a new MOC.

For example, let's say you have 20 scattered notes on the project you’re making. Just like putting 20 index cards on an inviting rustic workbench, putting links to all 20 notes into a new MOCs is the digital equivalent.

What is a mental squeeze point?

![[Mental Squeeze Point#^64cf60a6]]

(That's from a bottom-up starting point. You will also want to use MOCs to make sense out of existing knowledge from a top-down starting point.)

Why use MOCs

  1. MOCs help you manage anxiety in a positive way by allowing you a dedicated space to place related notes together.
  2. In that space, MOCs create a concentrated environment that encourages rapid ideation through the interaction, exchange, and development of thoughts, notions, and ideas.
  3. After you've developed an MOC you're happy with, it becomes a reference for whatever project you need to complete: an essay, a product, a summation of thought on a topic. Thanks to developing your MOC, you might find that your new project is already 80% complete.
  4. The MOC remains as a reliable navigational tool to the rest of your digital library.
  5. The MOC also acts as a reminding tool on a subject. Years later you can quickly return to it and remember, "Oh I remember now, that's what I thought about the how the evolution of fonts related to the broader movements of Art History!"
  6. The MOC remains ready to evolve as your thoughts grow, mature, develop complexity on a subject.
  7. MOCs maintain their fluidity: As opposed to folders, MOCs are nondestructive, non-restrictive, non-limiting perspectives. Unlike a folder, you are not forced to use them to access your notes. MOCs are “overlays” that add relevant information but that don't affect your base level notes.
  8. MOCs allow for limitless flexibility. Unlike folders or Table of Contents (TOC), MOCs are not hierarchical. They are heterarchical. This means that different MOCs can map the same info in different ways, to fit whatever your current needs might be.
  9. MOCs encourage "Relational Positioning": Don't argue with the Ancient Greeks and Romans about the value of spatial relationships. It helps us remember better when ideas are not floating in isolation, but as a part of a spatial constellation.

Mountain Top Water Drop

id : 20220829221904
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829214154|Philosophy MOC (kit)]]
tags:: #concept

Mountain Top Water Drop

The concept was delivered by Edward James Olmos in Joaquin Phoenix's quasi-spoof movie "I'm Here".

Although the movie was hard to watch and not enjoyable, I appreciated that the journey of the Mountain Top Water Drop was essentially the through line of the film. It that sense, it's actually quite poetic.

That's me, that's you. Drops of water. And you're on top of the mountain of success. But one day you start sliding down the mountain and you think, "wait a minute. I'm a mountaintop water drop. I don't belong in this valley, in this river, This low, dark ocean with all these drops of water." Yeah?.  And you feel confused. Then one day it gets hot And you slowly evaporate in the air. Way up... higher than any mountaintop, All the way to the heavens. Then you understand that it was at your lowest that you were closest to God. Because life's a journey that goes around and around And the end is closest to the beginning. So it's change you need, Relish the journey. Be a drop of running water. Obey those invisible pulls on your soul... Gravity, evaporation, love, Creativity. It's... in the darkest moments Is when the cracks allow The inner light to come out. But the spotlights... Don't let you see the inner light.

A daily cycle

One way to look at this metaphor is on a daily cycle.

A day's work takes you to the river, lake, or ocean. Sleep evaporates you into the clouds. Waking up puts you back as a Mountain Top Water Drop. ^7248b9

Misc

The Musician "Tha Playah" used this speech in his track "On The Edge".

video embed

Only relevant for the first 2 minutes.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2010

Munger's Mental Models

id : 20220824213329
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC, Thinking MOC
tags:: #concept

Munger's Mental Models

Short List of Munger's Models

  • Math (Munger is particularly fond of the algebraic idea of inversion, that is, to solve a problem you address it backwards)
  • Accounting (and its limits)
  • Engineering (according to Munger, the ideas of redundancies and break-points are applicable outside of engineering and can be applied to business)
  • Economics
  • Probability
  • Psychology (specifically the cognitive biases that cause us to make terrible decisions)
  • Chemistry
  • Evolutionary biology (can provide insights into economics)
  • History
  • Statistics

Long List of Munger's Models

  1. Accounting
  2. Balance Sheet
  3. Cash Flow Statement
  4. Depreciation
  5. Double-Entry
  6. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
  7. Income Statement
  8. Sunk Cost
  9. Biology:
  10. Genetics
  11. Natural Selection
  12. Physiology
  13. Business:
  14. Moats
  15. Five Forces
  16. Brand
  17. Chemistry:
  18. Autocatalytic reactions
  19. Bohr Model
  20. Kinetics
  21. Thermodynamics:
  22. Uncertainty Principle
  23. Viscosity
  24. Computer Science:
  25. Abstractions
  26. Algorithms
  27. If-statements
  28. Recursion
  29. Economics:
  30. Agency Problem
  31. Asymmetric Information
  32. Behavioral Economics
  33. Cumulative Advantage
  34. Comparative Advantage
  35. Competitive Advantage
  36. Creative Destruction
  37. Diminishing Utility
  38. Economies of Scale
  39. Elasticity
  40. Externalities
  41. Markets
  42. Marginal Cost
  43. Marginal Utility
  44. Monopoly and Oligopoly
  45. Network effects
  46. Opportunity Cost
  47. Price Discrimination
  48. Prisoner’s Dilemma
  49. Public and Private Goods.
  50. Specialization
  51. Supply and Demand
  52. Switching Costs
  53. Transaction Costs
  54. Tragedy of the Commons
  55. Time Value of Money
  56. Utility
  57. Engineering:
  58. Breakpoints
  59. Feedback loops
  60. Margin of Safety
  61. Redundancy
  62. Law:
  63. Burden of Proof
  64. Common law
  65. Due Process
  66. Duty of care
  67. Good Faith
  68. Negligence
  69. Presumption of Innocence
  70. Reasonable doubt
  71. Management Science:
  72. Occam’s razor
  73. Parkinson’s Law
  74. Process versus Outcome
  75. Mathematics, Probability and Statistics:
  76. Agent Based Models
  77. Bayes Theorem
  78. Central Limit Theorem
  79. Complex Adaptive Systems
  80. Correlation versus Causation
  81. Combinations
  82. Compounding
  83. Decision Trees
  84. Inversion
  85. Kelly Optimization Model
  86. Law of Large Numbers
  87. Mean, Median, Mode
  88. Normal Distribution
  89. Permutations
  90. Power Law
  91. Regression Analysis
  92. Return to the Mean
  93. Scaling
  94. Sensitivity Analysis
  95. Philosophy, Literature and Rhetoric:
  96. Metaphors
  97. Similes
  98. Abduction
  99. Pragmatism
  100. Realism
  101. Reductionism
  102. Physics:
  103. Critical Mass
  104. Electromagnetism
  105. Equilibrium
  106. Inertia
  107. Newton’s Laws
  108. Momentum
  109. Quantum Mechanics
  110. Relativity
  111. Shannon’s Law
  112. Thermodynamics

My Newsletter MOC

id : 20220831165839
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map #effort
rank:: 5

My Newsletter MOC

This note is a simple example of how you can consolidate all of your notes related to an effort into a single spot.

Below is a data view that looks for notes in the My Newsletters folder within "Spaces".

TABLE WITHOUT ID
 file.link as "Newsletter",
 dates as "Date Published"

FROM "Spaces/My Newsletters"

SORT file.link desc

LIMIT 20

My Virtues (starter)

id : 20220829170530
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Thinking MOC
tags:: #map

My Virtues

"Where attention goes, meaning grows.”

That means, just by thinking of a virtue, you may just start to live more in line with it.

This is your note to start growing a list of your virtues.

I'll give you one to start with:

  • Joy, Awe, and Wonder: Smile, laugh, grin. Tap into the awe you feel about the cosmos. Be fascinated by little things. Be an AMATEUR.
  • Yours?:

Natural Selection

id : 20220829215025
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Charles Darwin]]
tags:: #concept, #note/tidy🧹

Natural Selection

One of the most monumental of all concepts. So many fascinating angles.

Natural Selection is closely related to Hormesis and Antifragility.

Wiki

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations

Wiki: Mechanism: Heritable variation, differential reproduction

Natural variation occurs among the individuals of any population of organisms. Some differences may improve an individual's chances of surviving and reproducing such that its lifetime reproductive rate is increased, which means that it leaves more offspring. If the traits that give these individuals a reproductive advantage are also heritable, that is, passed from parent to offspring, then there will be differential reproduction, that is, a slightly higher proportion of fast rabbits or efficient algae in the next generation. Even if the reproductive advantage is very slight, over many generations any advantageous heritable trait becomes dominant in the population.

In this way the natural environment of an organism "selects for" traits that confer a reproductive advantage, causing evolutionary change, as Darwin described.[57] This gives the appearance of purpose, but in natural selection there is no intentional choice.

Wiki: Mechanism: Fitness

The concept of fitness is central to natural selection. In broad terms, individuals that are more "fit" have better potential for survival, as in the well-known phrase "survival of the fittest", but the precise meaning of the term is much more subtle. Modern evolutionary theory defines fitness not by how long an organism lives, but by how successful it is at reproducing. If an organism lives half as long as others of its species, but has twice as many offspring surviving to adulthood, its genes become more common in the adult population of the next generation. Though natural selection acts on individuals, the effects of chance mean that fitness can only really be defined "on average" for the individuals within a population. The fitness of a particular genotype corresponds to the average effect on all individuals with that genotype.[61] A distinction must be made between the concept of "survival of the fittest" and "improvement in fitness". *"Survival of the fittest" does not give an "improvement in fitness", it only represents the removal of the less fit variants from a population. *

Wiki: Mechanism: Competition

In biology, competition is an interaction between organisms in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. This may be because both rely on a limited supply of a resource such as food, water, or territory.[66] Competition may be within or between species, and may be direct or indirect.[67] Species less suited to compete should in theory either adapt or die out, since competition plays a powerful role in natural selection, but according to the "room to roam" theory it may be less important than expansion among larger clades.

Wiki: Arms Race

Natural selection is seen in action in the development of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms. Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, antibiotics have been used to fight bacterial diseases. The widespread misuse of antibiotics has selected for microbial resistance to antibiotics in clinical use, to the point that the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been described as a "superbug" because of the threat it poses to health and its relative invulnerability to existing drugs.[87] Response strategies typically include the use of different, stronger antibiotics; however, new strains of MRSA have recently emerged that are resistant even to these drugs.[88] *This is an evolutionary arms race, in which bacteria develop strains less susceptible to antibiotics, while medical researchers attempt to develop new antibiotics that can kill them.
*

Wiki: Impact: Universal Darwinism

Darwin's ideas, along with those of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, had a profound influence on 19th century thought, including his radical claim that "elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner" evolved from the simplest forms of life by a few simple principles.[113] This inspired some of Darwin's most ardent supporters—and provoked the strongest opposition. Natural selection had the power, according to Stephen Jay Gould, to "dethrone some of the deepest and most traditional comforts of Western thought", such as the belief that humans have a special place in the world.[114]

In the words of the philosopher Daniel Dennett, Darwin's dangerous idea" of evolution by natural selection is a "universal acid," which cannot be kept restricted to any vessel or container, as it soon leaks out, working its way into ever-wider surroundings.[115] Thus, in the last decades, the concept of natural selection has spread from evolutionary biology to other disciplines, including evolutionary computation, quantum Darwinism, evolutionary economics, evolutionary epistemology, evolutionary psychology, and cosmological natural selection. This unlimited applicability has been called universal Darwinism.

Newton's Laws of Motion

id : 20220829214455
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Art & Science Storytelling MOC]], [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Collide]]
tags:: #concept
dates:: ≈1642 - 1726
people:: [[Isaac Newton]]

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Newton's Laws of Motion

In classical mechanics, Newton's laws of motion are three laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. The first law states that an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless it is acted upon by an external force.

Newton's 1st Law of Motion

"Law of Inertia"

The first law states that an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by a net external force. Mathematically, this is equivalent to saying that if the net force on an object is zero, then the velocity of the object is constant.

Newton's 2nd Law of Motion

The second law states that the rate of change of momentum of a body over time is directly proportional to the force applied, and occurs in the same direction as the applied force.

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion

The third law states that all forces between two objects exist in equal magnitude and opposite direction:

Nina Simone (kit)

id : 20220830002242
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Music MOC]] (not included in the LYT Kit)
tags:: #people
dates:: 1933 - 2003

Nina Simone

I absolutely love Nina Simone's song [[20220829225628|1962 - Sinnerman (song)]]. It's in my top 100.

Wiki

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel and pop.

The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well received audition, which she attributed to racism. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in the United States in 1958 with "I Loves You, Porgy". Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

Wikipedia

No-Face

id : 20220512053552
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

No-Face

The self-destructive primal tension everybody harbors.

No-Face is a spirit in the 2001 Japanese animated film Spirited Away. According to [[Hayao Miyazaki]], No-Face is “the libido everybody secretly harbors.”

  • If "you are what you eat," No-Face eats the emotions of whatever is in front of it. It's reactive, not proactive.

No-Face is aroused by (and absorbs) primal tension and aggressive drives, easily becoming a self-perpetuating feedback loop of hot emotions. It's essentially Freud's Id.

Handling No-Face

Do Not Engage! — When the primal part of people take over, it's like they become No-Face. Do not perpetuate the aggression No-Face feeds off of. No-Face is best deflated by choosing not to respond aggressively (ie, sinking to its level), but rather by calling upon your reserves of discipline to enter a mindset of restraint and non-reaction; benevolence and patience—with an eye towards the well-being of the attacker while still holding your own.

In this way, you are not feeding the libido, but letting itself wear itself out. Just as No-Face's aggressions are dissipated by Chihiro in Spirited Away.

There is an art to handling self-perpetuating aggressiveness.
Look to Aikido for more insights into deflecting and dissipating an attacker's energy.

Related

| Aikido | The Id |

(previous thoughts: is organum indifferent, neither good nor evil; an emotion mirror, it becomes its environment)

Note-makers

id : 20220829190822
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220905000723|On the process of note-making]]
tags:: #on/PKM
X:: [[20220909043722|Note-takers]]

Note-makers

Note-makers are people who spend their thinking time in an active, engaged way—making sense of the stuff they encounter.

They don't try foolishly try to collect every piece of data they come across. Instead, as they encounter information, they think about it creatively, critically, and connectively.

This creates a positive feedback loop to encourage more active, engaged thinking!

Along with note-makers just generally being more interesting people to be around, they also are able to contribute much more value to their families, communities, and society as a whole.

Contrast this ideal of the note-maker with the pandemic of [[20220909043722|Note-takers]].


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-05-20

Note-making creates unexpected optionality

id : 20220829214521
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: [[20220506061404|Note-making sharpens your thinking]]
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Note-making creates unexpected optionality

A second-order effect that results from "linking your thinking" is how much "Optionality" it offers.

Simply put, optionality is not feeling stuck.

It enhances the value you have at your fingertips. It allows you to work from a place of abundance, as opposed to a place of scarcity. And it aids in your ability to pivot your career at the drop of a hat (or the onset of a pandemic!).

Personally, I've leaned on experiences from coaching college football and working as civil engineer to entrepreneurship and filmmaking. I've parlayed hard-earned patterns in one field of thought—systematizing and maintaining a small business—into a completely different one—like editing in television.

A large part of this ability stems from not just having quality experiences in my life, but in being able to re-apply fundamental aspects of those past experiences to new situations.

For a collection of related odes, check out the [[Benefits of linked thinking]].

Also related is how [[Most PKM educators skip note-making to focus on external rewards]]. It's not a horrible thing; it's kinda unfortunate, but it's just the reality.

Note-making is about the pursuit of truth

id : 20220813001201
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220905000723|On the process of note-making]]
tags:: #on/PKM

Note-making is about the pursuit of truth

Where our attention goes, is where our meaning grows.

So if we spend our time making notes, we are naturally trying to make sense of things. When we forge evergreen notes and make MOCs, we are forced to ask meaningful questions:

"What is the idea here?" ... "What is meaningful here?" ... Is this two ideas or one?" ... "Why is this important?" ... "What does this mean to me?" ... "What relates to this?"

Sometimes we are intentional about finding meaning. Cue the angsty existential walk in nature, where we implore the nearby squirrels, "What is the meaning of life?!" This is top-down thinking.

Sometimes meaning bubbles up from just living and doing. This is bottom-up thinking.

Despite our best efforts, meaning hits us from all directions. So, to grapple with this fluid pursuit of truth, we need to be able to think just as fluidly. Fluid Thinking.

Note-making sharpens your thinking

id : 20220506061404
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: [[20220829214521|Note-making creates unexpected optionality]]
tags:: #on/PKM

Note-making sharpens your thinking

Note-making forces clear, sharp thinking. Here are the basic steps: ^5e4e28c7

  • figure out the key statement
  • write the note in your own words
  • relate the idea in the note to your personal experiences
  • link the idea in the note to other ideas

Each aspect isn't a passive process; it's an active, engaged one.

This is profound and not readily apparent. It means that Linking your thinking encourages leaps of insights.

Note-takers

id : 20220909043722
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: [[20220829190822|Note-makers]]

Note-takers

People who spend too much of their time consuming information passively.

In response to the Information Age, they've fallen into the trap of mindlessly trying to collect everything—meaning they don't have any time for the actual thinking!

Contrast with [[20220829190822|Note-makers]]


More thoughts on note-takers

![[What is a note#^0bffe4]] ![[What is a note#^e19640]] ![[What is a note#^dd5058]]
Related words: Passive thinkers, over-summarizers, over-collectors, Collector's Fallacy, Content Regurgitators

Notebox

id : 20220829214459
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map/view

[!NOTE]+ Only the "Boat" and "Develop" data views are included in the LYT Kit.
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.
  • Nick, go here [[Notebox 🗃]]

The Notebox 🗃

The Notebox is a place of joy—without expectations or obligations.

This will be a head-scratcher for a culture obsessed with tasks, but when you start giving your thoughts the honor the deserve, you start having better and better thoughts!

Here's how it works: When you are in a note and have a feeling that you want to return to it—for some fuzzy or clear reason—just add a tag in that note. Then through the magic of data views, you can confidently use these auto-updating lists to find them later:

Boats 🚤

You probably made these notes in a rush. These BOAT notes are lonely boats floating in an empty ocean. All you need to do is tether them to other notes, and maybe develop them a little bit.

List
from #note/boat🚤 
sort file.name asc

Develop 🍃

You are probably excited to develop these notes. Do some note-making by linking to other notes. Clarify and critique it. Color and cite it.

LIST
FROM #note/develop🍃 
SORT file.name asc

Obsidian Flight School

id : 20220829183949
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The LYT Workshop
tags:: #source/course
dates:: 2021 - Present
people:: [[Nick Milo]]
URL:: Learn more

Obsidian Flight School

What is Obsidian Flight School?
Obsidian Flight School is an educational product-and starter kit
designed to stretch your limits in using the power of Obsidian.

  • Obsidian Flight School Vault
  • 100+ videos
  • 10+ exercises and simulations
  • 100+ lessons and notes
  • Peer-to-peer forum access
  • Lifetime updates

Working with ideas is hard.
We have too many scattered thoughts and lost notes. So we abandon the app of the week and search for the next app that will magically solve the chaos in our brains.

Making leaps of insights with your notes is even harder.
You know Obsidian is the answer, but you still don't know how to best use it. It can be overwhelming, and you keep asking, "What if there's a better way?"

Mastering Obsidian makes it easy-and incredibly fun.
Once you master Obsidian, you will astound yourself with what you are capable of. But to do this, you need to get the reps and work on the right stuff. Break the barriers that are holding you back.

Stop watching. Start practicing.

Flight School will help you do the following:

Work faster than ever before
Learn the best ways to rapidly create and open notes, effectively utilize Autocomplete, and effortlessly refactor text.

Get reps, get better
Watching videos is not enough. Drilling the exercises and simulations will unlock your full potential.

Customize your experience
Customize your themes, display panels, plugins, hotkeys, and functions to fine-tune your thinking experience.

What's inside the vault?

Learn more.

On having a TODO note

id : 20220829214411
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

On having a TODO note

Usually, the people who are "Daily Notes" practitioners also like tagging their entries with [[TODO]] or #task. I recommend using a different app to fully manage your projects and tasks.

But if you won't be deterred, here is a way to handle tasks in markdown.

  • [[TODO]] - Use this to manage your tasks
  • #task - Use a tag like this if you don't want to rely on backlinks to surface tasks or muddy up your graph with task-related connections.
  • [[done]] - Change [[TODO]] to [[done]] if you care about keeping a log the stuff you've completed.

Just to reiterate, I prefer to not clutter my ideas with tasks. Ideas are built for long-term value; whereas tasks provide very short-term value. Also, [[people who are led by a task manager cut off their intuition]].

On the process of note-making

id : 20220905000723
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

On the process of note-making

Note-making is a process for:

  1. idea creation and connection
  2. the strengthening of note retrieval
  3. the clever use of spaced repetition

Can I share with you the basic process?

Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of note-making.

A note-making walkthrough

  • I pulled in this old note from my pre-Obsidian zettelkasten.
    • [[2015-02-20 Habit Concepts and Theory]]
  • It's rough and less useful than it could be.
  • I made a new note to work in, and eventually it became this:
    • [[20220617184828|The neural formation of habits is additive - v1]]
  • Now I have an evergreen note.
  • Can you see why the second note is so much more valuable?
  • Because now I can return to this note and add more valuable to it over time.
  • That's what I did. A few days later, I returned to that note and developed it further:
  • "Wait a second!" You say. "Where did most of it go?"
  • That's the beauty. Through the note-making process, I realized my note was actually trying to say multiple things.
  • And since I wanted to be able to link to each idea separately, I made them into separate notes. Here's the other one:
  • But wait there's more!
  • This process actually encouraged me to generate new ideas.
  • It also encouraged me to link these ideas to other ideas. (This is crazy powerful).
  • Suddenly, I couldn't believe what I put together:
  • Those are powerful notes!
  • Creating one living note oftentimes spawns new insights for more living notes.
  • And that's the power of making living notes in the process known as note-making.

Boom! That's it.


Evergreen notes lead to MOCs

But that's seriously just the beginning, because now I want to introduce you to the most revolutionary thinking tool in the "age of the linked note"!

What am I even talking about here?

I'm talking about Maps of Content—also known as MOCs.

You simple must go through the The 3 Phases of MOCs to learn more about how to enhance your note-making using MOCs.

Before you click that link though, let's finish the big picture.

Do you see at the top of this note, how I have a link "up" to the LYT Kit? There is something powerful in linking your notes together. It allows you lightning fast navigation—especially back to your Home note. In this case, it's simple:

  • This note, [[20220905000723|On the process of note-making]]
    • ...leads back to LYT Kit...
      • ...which leads back to the Home note!

That means I've created a star map where I can make hyperspace jumps between different levels of "Idea Emergence" in just a few clicks.

Pretty awesome in my opinion.


Next, learn about MOCs in The 3 Phases of MOCs.

OODA Loop

id : 20220829215622
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Thinking MOC
tags:: #concept

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

OODA Loop

The faster you can: observe the changes in your environment, orient advantageously, decide on the best course of action, and actually act on that decision...the greater your chances of victory. ^ac47c8

In that process, it's the Orientation phase that is the most valuable. That's where you take what you observe and figure things out. You figure things out based on a mixture of new information, cultural traditions, genetic heritage (See: [[Nature or Nuture]]), your previous experiences—and how you blend all of that into your thinking process. ^56be2f

If you are equipped with the ability to think quickly, with winning mental models, then Fortune will be in your favor. ^00ee58

The OODA is a concept that speaks to something hidden but profound: [[Effectively orienting yourself improves your results]].


The OODA loop is the decision cycle of observe, orient, decide, and act developed by John Boyd.


Source

  1. Observe: It is not necessarily the one with more information who will come out victorious, it is the one with better judgment, the one who is better at discerning patterns.
  2. Orient: The reason Orient is the schwerpunkt of the OODA Loop is because that’s where our mental models exist, and it is our mental models that shape how everything in the OODA Loop works... "Orienting, in a nutshell, is the ability to make figurative mental snowmobiles on the fly and in the face of uncertainty. %%aka "Macgyvering"%%
  3. Decide: When we decide, we’re essentially moving forward with our best hypothesis — our best “educated guess” — about which mental model will work.
  4. Act: First, the individual or organization that can go through successful, consecutive OODA Loops faster than their opponent will win the conflict... Second, rapid OODA Looping on your part “resets” your opponent’s OODA Loop by causing confusion – it sends them back to square one.

The OODA Loop is not only a tool to win in battle. It is a learning engine that acts as a Feedback Loop that allows an individual or organization to thrive in a changing environment.


Domains recommended by John Boyd

At face value, this list is without value. But if you dig into any domain, that's where you'll find concepts that start accreting (gathering), into potential powerful personal mental models that can take your pattern recognition and decision-making to much higher levels.

  • Mathematical Logic [look back at Geometric proofs]
  • Physics
  • Thermodynamics
  • Biology
  • Psychology
  • Anthropology
  • Conflict (Game Theory)
  • Biological Evolution
  • Quantum Mechanics

Related: [[20220824213329|Munger's Mental Models]]

Reference this tidbit for even more: "Tidbit - Tao of John Boyd - OODA Loop"


Wiki

The OODA loop is the decision cycle of observe, orient, decide, and act, developed by military strategist and United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, often at the operational level during military campaigns. It is now also often applied to understand commercial operations and learning processes. The approach favors agility over raw power in dealing with human opponents in any endeavor

Outbox

id : 20220912221804
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map/view

The Outbox 📤

This is a place to track your various outputs.

Below is a simple example of a data view that is looking for any note that has the tag: output

This is enough to get you started. Over time, you will probably want extra custom views.

TABLE WITHOUT ID
 file.link as Outputs,
 tags as Tags
 
FROM #output 

SORT file.name asc

People MOC

id : 20220923162947
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Almost all content and links have been removed.

People MOC

Have a place to honor the importance of the people your life.

  • Smaller Circles
    • [[Family, Friends, and Birthdays]]
  • Bigger Circles
    • [[People by my eras in life]]
  • Special Areas
    • [[People MOC#Prominent People 🌋|Prominent People 🌋]]
    • [[Entertainment Industry]]
    • [[Literary Industry]]

Once you feel comfortable, adding notes for people—whether they are living or not—you will notice how it helps your understanding of them. Here are the main things I do related to notes on people:

  • Make note of special memories
  • Jot down notable information
  • Learn entirely new industries
  • Learn more about people

Prominent People 🌋

The hope is to see these prominent people in various ways to pull out insights. For example, by date allowed me to see that both Carl Sagan and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi were born in 1934.

[!HINT]+ This data view 🔬 only renders in the free downloadable version.
If you are viewing this note on Obsidian Publish, you won't be able to see the magic unless you download the kit.
Note: If you can see the table below, you have already downloaded the LYT Kit.

TABLE WITHOUT ID
 file.link as People,
 dates as "Years Lived"

FROM #people

SORT dates asc

People's attributes are domain-specific

id : 20220830023035
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829225600|150 - The Almagest]]
tags:: #note/boat🚤

People's attributes are domain-specific

Just because Frank is good at ABC doesn't mean he's good at XYZ.

Imagination is domain-specific…sometimes a person’s attributes cross domains, but don’t assume they do. This is related to the [[Dunning-Kruger Effect]]. (not included in the LYT Kit)

In essence, we must not conflate people's excellence in one area with their competence in another. People's attributes are domain-specific. For example, just because they can write, doesn't mean they can sing. Maybe they can, maybe they can't, but don't just automatically think they can.

One of the producers on a TV show was good at writing, but inept in producing during the post-production phase.

Interestingly, I heard a very similar quote from one of the ancient Stoics, Epictetus, who said,

"Don't confuse qualities found in the same writer only incidentally. If Plato had been strong and handsome, should I also try to become strong and handsome as if this were essential to philosophy, since there was one particular philosopher who combined philosophy with good looks?" - Epictetus 1.8.12.13


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2018-02-20

Philosophy MOC (kit)

id : 20220829214154
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Library
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note

  • Content and links have been removed.
  • It's okay to have incomplete notes! They can still provide valuable scaffolding for me to hang ideas on in the future. That's what I'm doing here.
  • Nick, go here [[Philosophy MOC]].

Philosophy MOC

  • [[Ancient Greece MOC]]
  • [[Collective Intelligence MOC]]
  • [[Design MOC]]
  • [[1952 - The Syntopicon]]
  • Dimensions of Reality

Traditional Philosophy

Top Philosophers

Add as needed

  • [[Socrates]], [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]]
  • [[Montaigne]]

Chronological

Add as needed
5th Century BC

  • 490 – 420 BC - [[Protagoras]] - Sophist
  • 483 – 375 BC - [[Gorgias]] - Sophist
  • 470 – 399 BC - [[Socrates]]
  • 460 – 370 BC - [[Democritus]]
  • 428 – 347 BC - [[Plato]]

4th Century BC

  • 384–322 BC - [[Aristotle]]

3rd Century BC

2nd Century BC

1st Century BC

1st Century AD
100 AD (get more accurate date) [[Juvenal]] - Roman poet

16th Century AD
1533 – 1592 - [[Montaigne]]

Places MOC

id : 20220829214158
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Library
tags:: #map #on/travel

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Places MOC

Welcome to the Places MOC. It is the most under-developed major category for me, but I value having a "map" for "places", it's rather apt.

Main Travel Categories

[[Countries I've Been To]]
[[Travel Purgatory List]]

Some Notable Places

[[Journal of My Travels to XYZ]]
[[Mind Palace XYZ]]

Plan and Review

id : 20220831004201
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Plan and Review MOC

This is the place for goals and grand strategy...for plans, reviews, analyzing, and recording wins.

  • Themes
    • 2022 - The Return of the Note-Maker
    • 2021 - The Season of Note-Making
    • 2020 - Attack of the Editing Credit
  • Yearly
    • 2022 Reflections and 2023 Game Plan
    • 2021 Reflections and 2022 Game Plan
    • 2020 Reflections and 2021 Game Plan
  • Quarterly
    • 2023 Q1 Review and Game Plan
    • 2022 Q4 Review and Game Plan

I hope these high level example titles help. Keep it simple, and make it useful for you.

Plato's Cave

id : 20220829214358
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829214154|Philosophy MOC (kit)]]
tags:: #note/develop🍃
people:: [[Plato]]

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Plato's Cave

When you return and tell everyone their beliefs are wrong...What happens is the same thing that happened to [[Copernicus]] and [[Gallileo]] and [[Jesus]] and... They don't like that because they lose a Sense of Control.

I relate this to Dimensions of Reality, in which our friend "A Square" from [[1884 - Flatland]] faces a similar predicament.

Practical Tactics for Finding Flow

id : 20220505230950
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Practical Tactics for Finding Flow

  1. There are things that get in the way of flow. We'll call those Flow Stoppers.
  2. With each Flow Stopper, there are solutions to get through them. We'll call those Solutions to Flow Stoppers.

Preparing for the next day is an important habit

id : 20220829190751
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

Preparing for the next day is an important habit

This should read as common sense. Still, a refresher is nice.

  • Start the night before.
  • Walk around if you can to get the blood flowing.
  • Talk if you can to get the mind thinking. It's helpful to externalize and articulate the unspoken.
  • Ask: Did you set out your clothes for the upcoming day?

To be able to lay out your clothes for the next day, you have to mentally rehearse the sequence of events for tomorrow. This let's you find the discover any problems and remedy them before they happen.

A little visualization and preparation is a small nightly habit that pays major dividends.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-06-28
    • created:: 2014-06-28
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Priming

id : 20220825051121
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829214535|Psychology MOC (kit)]]
tags:: #concept, #note/develop🍃

Priming

Usually a sub-concept of Framing, Priming refers to things that affect our mental context.

Link to my whole "prime the mind" stuff, which is about taking deliberate actions to prime your mind before entering new environments and situations. At the time, I gave it a little too much import as I was testing it. The underlying value is that it allows for a Sense of Control, which is a fundamental building block of feeling good and successful throughout life.

Examples: later...

Progressive Ideation

id : 20220829190708
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Small Wins foster a Sense of Control
tags:: #on/PKM

Progressive Ideation

Progressive Ideation is the process of relating and developing ideas over time.

Through this process, your thinking efforts naturally compound.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020

Psychology MOC (kit)

id : 20220829214535
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Library
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.
  • Nick, go to [[Psychology MOC]]

Psychology MOC (kit)

It was just easier to completely sanitize this note for public viewing. Put your "psychology concepts" here.

Ptolemy (kit)

id : 20220829214505
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: [[20220829225600|150 - The Almagest]]
tags:: #people
dates:: 100 - 170

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.
  • Nick, go here [[Ptolemy]]

Ptolemy (kit)

Ptolemy was a Greek guy living in Alexandria, Egypt, where the biggest library in the world was.

And so what did Ptolemy do? He read...and he looked at the stars a lot.

All that reading and all that staring at the stars led to something massive. He assembled and created a unified theory of the cosmos called [[20220829225600|150 - The Almagest]]. This text was so good, it was treated as 100% accurate for 1500 years!

Even after [[Copernicus]] published his heliocentric theory in 1543, it took another century until [[Kepler]] overcame his deeply ingrained beliefs. [[Kepler didn't think outside the box, he thought outside the circle]].

Recognize there is a problem and seek solutions.

id : 20220506041046
type : undefined
keywords :

You search the interwebs and stumble upon this LYT Kit. You wonder, "Are these the droids answers I am looking for?" You're intrigued just enough to learn more.

Refraction Thinking

id : 20220828191633
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Thinking MOC
tags:: #concept

Refraction Thinking

Thinking about ONE thing, through the lens of ANOTHER thing.

Use to broaden your perspective and think more laterally.

An enjoyable and non-efficient way of thinking about a Thing, is to place several different lenses in front of it. In the optometry office, they call this device a Phoropter. For the purposes of thinking, we'll call this technique spending time in "Refraction-based thinking".

"Refraction" has a different goal than "action". Refraction is for broadening perspective and deepening understanding. Action is about getting things done. Both are essential. Too much refraction and you fall into Hamlet's trap, who even though he knew his uncle murdered his father, procrastinated from decisive action because of "paralysis by analysis".

Applying "refraction" to our thinking is similar to applying a "mental model", but they tend to stand apart because of the purpose. While Refraction is primarily for broadening perspective and deepening understanding, the use of "Mental Models" is primarily for pattern recognition for efficient, optimal action. The answer here is quite simply to find a balance. (See: Yin and Yang)

When spending time in Refraction Mode, each lens you hold up offers a different view; some more valuable than others, all part of the process.

What is Refraction? Refraction is the turning or bending of any wave, such as a light or sound wave, when it passes from one medium into another of different optical density.

Some Lenses for Refraction

  • The 7 Dimensions of Wellness
  • The 4 Stoic Virtues
  • The 8-Fold Path
  • My Virtues

Reps

id : 20220829214150
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Reps

"Reps, Reps, Reps." ^dbdd21

Learning, improving, deliberate practice…the underpinning of it all—the unspoken current flowing through any progression—is getting reps, in all forms, consistently and frequently.

In practicing a craft, just show up, and get reps: tiny reps, technical reps, reps from questions, reps by observation, reps by research, reps, reps, consistent, persistent reps!

Repetitions strengthen neural pathways, which I think of in terms of Cobwebs into Cables.

When working on a specific craft, and when you've passed a threshold of basic competence, then it's valuable to identify specific areas to work on and to drill them deliberately. This is called Deliberate Practice, a term coined by the "expert on experts" [[20220825014254|K. Anders Ericsson (kit)]].

Damian Lillard talks about how [[LYT Notes 5|getting the reps]] gives him to confidence to be so clutch.

Adrian Martinez casually talks about [[2021-10-04#Adrian Martinez on getting Reps with the option|getting reps]] with the option.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2017-2018
    • created:: 2017-2018

Resiliency Routines help regain a sense of control

id : 20220829190610
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

Resiliency Routines help regain a sense of control

Life happens. Sometimes we're on top of the world, other times the world is on top of us. Around May 2018, the world was on top of me. I felt an instinctual pull to rebuild some routine and structure into my day. Due to my undiagnosed condition to nounify everything, I began to refer to these practices as Resiliency Routines. Others who have read Duhigg might refer to them as "Keystone Habits"[^1]. Normal people might just say "things I do in the morning and at night."

For me, in the briefest rendition, it just meant waking up earlier than normal, journaling, and working out. I had one unfair super tool in my arsenal: access to a sauna. So every morning resulted in a sauna-workout.

In the sauna one morning I recognized that I was: unhappy, unbalanced, and unproductive. My morning trifecta—wake early, journal, and workout—helped remove the “un” from those prefixes.

  1. Wake early
  2. Journal
  3. Workout

This is a simple reminder that the solution to not feeling so overwhelmed starts with some simple actions.

[^1]: What's my deal with nounifying important habits? I tire myself... [[20220830023515|Words I've used to describe important habits]]


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2018-05-19
    • created:: 2018-05-19
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Rubik's Cube

id : 20220512053748
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Rubik's Cube

Themes

  • Structure amidst Chaos
    • There can never be a white edge next to a white edge, therefore, there are constraints, meaning there are not infinite permutations, there are patterns, structure built into the chaos, but it's only chaos, unless you know what to look for, which is where practice and experience give help you see the patterns.
  • Pattern Recognition
    • When solving a cube, you're looking for a pattern. If this pattern, then that algorithm.
    • See OODA Loop
  • Repetitions/Experience lead to Pattern Recognition and Muscle Memory
    • See Reps
  • Multi-dimensional thinking
  • Seeing multiple moves ahead
  • Multiple Solutions
    • There is more than just one method to solve: OLL/PLL is fast if you can make mental images instantly. But there is always F2L, which is slower and certain, like the tortoise.

Additional Notes

  • Basic method, CFOP
  • People look at the colors as sides, but it’s better to look at each cube individually.
  • No cube can have the same color twice.

Seasons

id : 20220829214732
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #note/develop🍃

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Seasons

The seasons are a natural example of Yin and Yang...ebb and flow...It's usually a duality but it doesn't have to be a duality. Many things are cyclical: the seasons, perennials, period's for women, the moon, hunger and satiation...

Other things may be cyclical and also be in stages, like how Hermann Hesse's characters (Siddhartha, Joseph Knecht) go through their different stages of life, similar to the idea of the stages of personal development (dependence, independence, interdependence), which both can map to the xy graph for progression overload—the idea behind building muscular strength through cumulative cycles.

  • pre-industrial metaphor = grow
  • post-industrial metaphor = make... ie: everyday speech: we make time, make friends, make meaning, make money, make a living, make love.
    • Alan Watts observed that a Chinese child will ask, "How does a baby grow?" But an American child will ask, "How do you make a baby?"

Related: [[Enso]], [[Ouroboros]], [[Dragon and Phoenix]], cycles, on/off

Brief Essay on Turnovers

[Include your piece on "Turnovers" here]

Somebody's decent quote about seasons

The notion that our lives are like the eternal cycle of the seasons does not deny the struggle or the joy, the loss or the gain, the darkness or the light, but encourages us to embrace it all-and to find in all of it opportunities for growth.
From an early age, we absorb our culture's arrogant conviction that we manufacture everything, reducing the world to mere "raw material" that lacks all value until we impose our designs and labor on it.”
― abbrev. quote from Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

Selfish Gene

id : 20220828211810
type : undefined
keywords :

X:: Like begets like
tags:: #concept, #note/boat🚤

Selfish Gene

aka Immortal Gene

An individual organism is a throwaway Survival Machine for the self-replicating coded information which it contains. - Richard Dawkins

Gene: A pattern of DNA whose copies exist inside creatures
and determine one trait. The unit of natural selection.

Interesting: How Inclusive fitness can be seen in memes

things that are better at reproducing are more likely to reproduce

Sense of Control

id : 20220506014852
type : undefined
keywords :

up::
tags:: #note/boat🚤

Sense of Control

Sense-making sessions

id : 20220506040748
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The LYT Workshop

Sensemaking sessions

Sensemaking sessions are immersive hands-on live events where people work their note-making muscles together.

These are one of the big draws of The LYT Workshop.

Sensemaking happens by triangulation

id : 20220831180833
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: MOCs Overview
tags:: #effort #output/multiple
rank:: 4

  • Outputs
    • output:: #output/lesson 2022-02-01 - lesson retired
    • output:: #output/twitter☑️ 2022-07-21 - twitter thread.
    • output:: #output/youtube☑️ 2022-07-21 - youtube video.
    • output:: #output/newsletter 2022-07-26 - newsletter.
    • output:: #output/website 2022-xx-xx - website

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Sensemaking happens by triangulation

Triangulation is using two known points to find a third point.

Every version of sensemaking we do—every moment of every day—involves us triangulating information.

Triangulation says I am the ultimate sensemaking mechanism, to both the known and unknown.

The three powers of triangulation

  • You can use what you know to make sense of stuff.
    • Use two known points, to better understand a third point.
  • You can use what you know to remember old stuff.
    • Use two known points, to remember a forgotten third point.
  • You can use what you know to create new stuff.
    • Use two known points to imagine a third point.

Use two known points, to better understand a third point.

Use two known points, to remember a forgotten third point.

Use two known points to imagine a third point.

The third power of triangulation is basically [[Idea Emergence]].

So how does one improve their triangulation skills? By getting reps connecting ideas.

One of the best ways is using MOCs to cluster ideas, which will spark connections and spur insights.


Close

  • If you prioritize over-collecting, you also prioritize under-thinking.
  • If you prioritize rote memorization, you also prioritize rigid thinking.
  • If you prioritize highlighting, you also prioritize passive thinking.

Those priorities deprioritize sensemaking, triangulation, and your ability to understand the interrelationships of nature.

The better you triangulate, the faster you can move in the world.

  • If you don't over-collect and drown your system in noise...
  • If you don't over-structure and suffocate your system in rigidity...
  • If you don't over-highlight and leave little time for active thinking...

Then you will have a healthy link-based PKM framework where Idea Emergence can work for you.

You will have an emergent system that strengthens your ability to triangulate "knowledge" and will allow you to:

  • Make better sense of things
  • Remember past stuff better
  • Create new insights more naturally

Outro

The three powers of triangulation

  • You can use what you know to make sense of stuff.
    • Use two known points, to better understand a third point.
  • You can use what you know to remember old stuff.
    • Use two known points, to remember a forgotten third point.
  • You can use what you know to create new stuff.
    • Use two known points to imagine a third point.

Youtube video

Triangulation is using two known points to find a third point.


Every version of sensemaking we do
—every moment of every day—
involves us triangulating information.


Triangulation says:
"I am the ultimate sensemaking mechanism,
to both the known and unknown."


The three powers of triangulation

  1. Use what you know to make sense of stuff.
  2. Use what you know to remember old stuff.
  3. Use what you know to create new stuff.

The three powers of triangulation

  1. Use two points, to understand a third point.
  2. Use two points, to remember a third point.
  3. Use two points to imagine a third point.

The 1st power of triangulation
Use two points, to understand a third point.


The 2nd power of triangulation
Use two points, to remember a third point.


The 2nd power of triangulation
Use two points, to remember a third point.


The 3rd power of triangulation
Use two points to imagine a third point.


The better you triangulate,
the faster you can move
in the world of ideas.


If...

  • If you don't over-collect and drown your system in noise...
  • If you don't over-structure and suffocate your system in rigidity...
  • If you don't over-highlight and leave little time for active thinking...

Then...

You will have an emergent system that encourages your ability to triangulate "knowledge".


You will leverage these always-present powers of triangulation to understand, remember, and imagine better than ever before.


These three powers of triangulation underpin everything we cover in the following lessons.

Youtube comments

So the third power is basically Idea Emergence? How does one improve their triangulation skills?

Exactly!!! By getting reps connecting ideas. One of the best ways is using MOCs to cluster ideas, which will spark connections and spur insights.

Erick Wutke 1 day ago
When you put yourself (Nick), as a "mediator" for the concept apprehension, I thought: "wow, this isn't just concept triangulation, it's more: he's got his René Girard on point"

ME: Thank you! Can you elaborate on the René Girard reference? I would love to know how he did things

That is quite a task I'll try. Basically Girard "discovered" another facet of the human nature: that every desire is mimetic, or as the early version of the theory says: that there's a "mimetic triangulation of desire" where the mediator, who possesses the object of desire (with time) is to be hated/envied if he is close to the person who desires (like a friend, parent, etc), or admired if he is far (just like I admire Girard because I want "his" intelligence, theoretic capacity, etc).

He started observing this in literature, stating that there is a "Romantic Lie" in which the objects are desired for themselves, and a "Novelistic Truth" in which the triangulation is unveiled (Dostoievsky, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Stendhal, Flaubert, Proust... Our Machado de Assis) and then in Anthropology, in the Bible and mythic narratives, always revealing a layer of envy or pursuit depending on the distance of a mediator from the person who desires.

The theory gets more interesting when the object desired and the mediator are the same person, which is what makes us prone into thinking that love, for example, is a linear thing (the Romantic Lie). But the triangular dynamic is still kept the same: you can strive to achieve the very same thing that you develop resentment towards to in the process. Or in the case of Narcissus, where he himself occupies the three points of the triangle!

The theory also adds some interesting layers to the Freudian "Totem and Taboo" archetype of the origin of societal violence and subsequent legislation and mitigation of violence, too. There's a temptation to try and explain every event of escape-goating and society violence as the multiplication of interconnected close triangules that scales up.

But some commentators note that could not explain the genocides of the 20th century as it can explain the escape-goating of Jesus and other figures in much smaller scale. So... going back to the video, you're definitely not wrong in noting that for us to apprehend something, to "take hold of it", we need to get it through someone who already "owns" it, and to bring one closer, is to bring the other too - to a point =P

ME: Whoa. You are correct about the size of the task I was requesting, but I'm grateful you've enlightened me on this angle of the topic!

Tweet thread

Here's the link to the finished version on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickMilo/status/1562063375491817473.

People complain about Obsidian graphs, but they're forgetting its most powerful purpose... TRIANGULATION! Here's how you can use it to unlock new insights in your PKM 👇

What is "triangulation?" Triangulation is how we make sense of the world. We do it all the time! It's using two "known points" to find a third "unknown point." Triangulation helps you: 1. UNDERSTAND 2. REMEMBER 3. & IMAGINE Now let me show you how they work...

The 1st Power of Triangulation: UNDERSTAND 📐
Use what you know to understand what you don't! For example, here are 3 (very simple) points: • you (known) • me (known) • idea (unknown) Your goal: Understand this idea → "Pace Layers"

If you don't know me... or the idea... you can't make a nice triangle. So you won't understand! If you know me better... you can use me as an anchor point to better understand Pace Layers. When you are clear on two points, you can better understand the third point.

We do this countless times a day! We triangulate to understand how things we know relate to things we don't know. Once you have a bunch of dots on your Map, you can UNDERSTAND things rapidly. But how do you REMEMBER all the dots?

The 2nd Power of Triangulation: REMEMBER 📐
Use what you know to remember what you forgot! For example, let's say, you can't remember "Pace Layers". But you might remember the originator "Steward Brand" (@stewartbrand). And from there, you'll remember "Pace Layers."

Triangulating to remember is how our brains naturally work. Try it out with your graph. Hover over one idea. What is it connected to? Over time, your ideas will have many links. And this is how we build powerful and personal Knowledge Networks.

When you know two points, you can better remember a third point. Once you have a bunch of dots on your Map, you can REMEMBER things rapidly. But how do you create with the stuff you know?

The 3rd Power of Triangulation: IMAGINE 📐
Use what you know to imagine new insights! This is the radical power of linking your thinking. By building your connective thinking muscle you become a creative machine.

Now at the random crossroads between ideas, you are generating INSIGHTS! That means new forms of value. You are imagining worlds, products, and services. When you know two points, you can better imagine the third point.

These are the 3 triangulation powers to help think better than ever before! 1. Use what you know to make sense of stuff 2. Use what you know to remember old stuff 3. Use what you know to create new stuff The better you triangulate, the faster you can move in the world of ideas!

For more graphics, insights, and commentary on the 3 powers of triangulation, check out this 6-minute video: youtu.be/JV_7nppxv7A

By the way, some of these graphics came from one of @ProfFeynman's more hidden lectures called "Tips on Physics": https://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/TIPS_01.html

Newsletter copy

Sensemaking happens by Triangulation

“Triangulation” is using two known points to find a third point. Triangulating is how we make sense of the world.

Triangulation is why we love to link our thoughts.

It’s how we do our best thinking!

The better you triangulate, the faster you can move in the world of ideas.

We might as we see how it works, right?

Here’s my video on Triangulation:

Hint: The last power is what Idea Emergence looks like.

I posted a Twitter thread about triangulation too. It’s similar, but makes other points.

(If you watch and read both, which version do you prefer?)

Triangles are good.

Because when you have a bunch of points.

And you connect them into tons of triangles.

Guess what?

You have an Ideaverse.

Scratchpad

  • [[Triangulation]] - plenty I haven't covered above for the sake of brevity
  • Spatial Context - haven't mentioned, out of space
  • Method of Loci - haven't mentioned, out of space
  • (Naturally leads to the next lesson, which covers 🥾Stronger tethers, Better Recall)
  • Reminders & Insights & Triangulation: What Idea Emergence gives us (Unit 6) - Triangulation (Feynman)

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” - Mark Twain

When it comes to "triangulation", I could write a really long letter. ✉️ But for the workshop, I want to honor your valuable attention, so here is the short version...


Many of the best ideas are the ones we've already had—we just need the reminder.

%% Don't like this here
This is also known as the "You just finished reading a self-help book, please don't immediately read another one" Rule. I say that with great love for personal development. I also say that as someone who read way too many books regurgitating the same concepts again and again. An occasional book every once in a while? Definitely. But if you're reading it because you think you don't already know how to set goals, then you might just be procrastinating. That's because there is a truth we don't honor in an aggressively productive society. Let's say it in different ways:

You already know what you need to know. You just need to do it.

%%


  • We approach what we don't know through the lens of what we do know.
  • We approach the unknown through the lens of the known.

Example Alt Long

Whether it's a forum post, youtube video, or Amazon review, why do we feel compelled to read the comments? Why is watching gamers comment about their gaming a multi-billion dollar industry? Because by consuming both the THING and the comments about the THING, we're making deeper sense of the THING (along with the person commenting about the THING).

In a world drowning in information overload, we crave quality curation.

Set Up Your Home Note

id : 20220831004340
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

Set Up Your Home Note

Your Home note is your north star, navigating you to your MOCs. It keeps the entire system organized.

  1. Go to the Home note. Check it out.
    • Review the MOCs in your Home note.
      • Do you see categories that relate to you?
    • Review the keywords below
  2. Now start clicking all the links. Get familiar with the pages.
    • Do you notice how you can always quickly click back to the Home note (or at least to an MOC, and then back to the Home note)? That's powerful.
    • Do you see any patterns with how some of the Home MOCs are structured? Any you could imagine using?
  3. What MOC is a subject you already have notes on?
    • Start linking your own notes to that existing MOC.
  4. Customize that MOC to your heart's content.

That's the basic process.

Remember, the structure works for you, not the other way around (See Is LYT For Me). You can always just create thousands of notes without looking at the home note once.


Advanced steps

  1. In the Home note, start customizing the Home MOCs to suit your personal needs. Less is more at the start of your journey. A bulleted list can be faster to work in (and easier to maintain) than a complicated table.
  2. Play around, break things. Some categories you thought would work won't. That's fine, just rejigger things until they work better for you.

For more guidance on this, go to: Figuring out your Home MOCs

Shadow Clone

id : 20220503190814
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Shadow Clone

Divide your energies to accomplish more, at the cost of increasing your fragility, exposure, and vulnerability

Like multi-tasking

To create one or more copies of themselves. The user's chakra is evenly divided between themselves and their clones:

Shadow clones can serve a number of purposes: They can be used as decoys, either by keeping opponents preoccupied or, because they can't be told apart, concealing the original's identity. Shadow clones can also be used simply to assist the user, joining the user for tactics they can't do alone.

Shadow clones can also accelerate training periods. For example, by training alongside one shadow clone for one hour, the user will have two hours' worth of training experience once the shadow clone disperses.

While a user and/or their clones are performing tasks that require concentration, they're unable to have more than a few shadow clones active at a time.

How to Apply

The best way to deploy a shadow-clone is probably through leveraging apps to do work for you. Like transcribing audio notes for example.

Should I have an Articles folder under Sources

id : 20220910010107
type : undefined
keywords :

Should I have an Articles folder under Sources

Why a separate folder for "articles"? This requires a long, complex, and nuanced answer. But I don't have the time to explain it again here, so I'll simple hint that the driving concept behind this is the Signal to Noise Ratio.

...okay a little more explanation. For millennia, humanity didn't have easy access to quality information. For ≈20 years, humanity has WAAYYY too much access to information. We've been trained to over-collect this information. But we're finding out that this strategy leads to under-thinking and overwhelm. (See: Anywhere I share opinions about this.)

There are healthier strategies to managing the NOISE out there. This is one tiny tactic amidst the broader strategy of better knowledge management.

Signal to Noise Ratio

id : 20220825054714
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept, #note/boat🚤 .

Signal to Noise Ratio

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Just because it's cool, doesn't mean it's good. #source/quote/my

The signal is the good stuff. The noise, not so much.

Small Wins foster a Sense of Control

id : 20220829214146
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/PD

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Small Wins foster a Sense of Control

In the literature, which I've forgotten, one of the most apparent attributes in building up desired habits is the concept of small wins.

Small Wins encourage Flow; and Flow encourages itself, so it's fair to say that: Small Wins create a Feedback Loop. In terms of making notes in our PKM systems, Progressive Ideation.

I remember one example from "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor. He wants to play the guitar more, so he removes it from the closet and places in prominently in his house. Now that he sees it, he plays it. This is also a strong instance of an important concept: [[Out of Sight, Out of Mind]].

He also references people going to bed with their workout clothes on—or at least next to their bed. If you want to work out in the morning, that's a sure-fire way to remove all friction from the choice. It decreases the [[Activation Energy]] required, making it more likely to be done.

Solutions to Flow Stoppers

id : 20220829213329
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: FlowCreation MOC
tags:: #on/flow

Solutions to Flow Stoppers

  • [ ] Organize these using the four factors
  1. Reduce Distractions — This is the number one killer of flow. (Main Element: Attention)
  2. Do activities you naturally want to do — Obviously this can get you in trouble if these activities take you away from your responsibilities to your family, finances, friends, and to society as a whole. So with that disclaimer out of the way, if you do the things that easily get you into flow—and ideally create some sort of additional value (extra money, quality time with others)—then it's likely not a destructive type of flow (like playing online games too much). (Main Element: [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]])
  3. Reduce the amount of competing things you want to do — Too many projects, desires, and wants can make them all slip through your fingers, or as said in the Count of Monte Cristo, "evaporate into a thousand follies." (Main Elements: [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]], [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]])
    • Narrow your attention — In the moment, take a mental step back and try to narrow your attention on the task at hand. If you're at a computer screen, this means closing tabs and applications and eliminating things that are robbing your attention.
  4. Take a deep breath, take a walk, change your environment — Whether it's burnout, lowered energy from sitting too much, or just feeling overwhelm; knowing when (and how) to change things up is a crucial skill for many things—including for recentering so you can once again find flow. (Main Element: [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]], [[20220829232117|Attention (re Flow)]])
  5. Tie your present activity to your goals in some way — More often than not, we find ourselves doing something we wish we weren't doing. Try to find a way to relate the activity to your goals in some way. (Main Elements: [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]], [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]])
    • Make a game out of it — So you really don't see any strong connection between your activity and your goals, so you just can't seem to summon the enthusiasm for it. So try making a game out of it. How fast can you get the task done with complete focus and zero distractions? If it's an event with people, maybe try to get into a few higher, quality, deeper conversations; or maybe just make a game out of asking really good questions. (Main Elements: [[20220512052444|Direction (re Flow)]], [[20220505230700|Enthusiasm (re Flow)]])
  6. Sleep well. Eat Well. Hydrate well — If your energy is low because you've somehow neglected taking care of yourself, then it will be much harder to induce flow because low energy means decreased mood and increased distractibility. (Main Element: [[20220829215142|Energy (re Flow)]])

Some Allusions from Literature

id : 20220829231436
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Allusion MOC]] (not included in the LYT Kit)

Some Allusions from Literature

  • Babbitt – a self-satisfied person concerned chiefly with business and middle-class ideals, like material success. Comes from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.
  • Cinderella – one who gains affluence or recognition after being treated poorly.
  • Don Juan – a libertine, profligate, a man obsessed with women.
  • Don Quixote – someone overly idealistic to the point of being unrealistic. From the Cervantes character in The Man of La Mancha, by Dale Wasserman and Mitch Leigh.
  • Frankenstein – anything that threatens or destroys its creator. From Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein.
  • Jekyll and Hyde – a capricious person with two sides to his personality. From the novel of the same name.
  • Lothario – used to describe a man who seduces women. From The Fair Penitent, by Nicholas Rowe.
  • Scrooge – a bitter and/or greedy person. From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
  • Svengali – a person with an irresistible hypnotic power; from 1984, by George Mauriers.

Some Greek Allusions

id : 20220829231509
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Allusion MOC]]

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Some Greek Allusions

Many of the words we use today are actually allusions to historical figures and Greek Gods. Here are just a few examples:
Greek

Like other uses of simile, this example functions to help readers visualize the situation.

  • Achilles’ heel – a weakness a person may have. Achilles was invulnerable, except for his heel (achilles tendon).
  • Adonis – a handsome younger man; Aphrodite loved him.
  • Apollo – a physically perfect male; the God of music and light, Apollo was known for his physical beauty.
  • Cassandra – a person who continually predicts misfortune, but often is not believed.
  • Erotic – of or having to do with sexual passion or love. Eros was the Greek god of love.
  • Harpy – a predatory person or nagging woman. Comes from “harpy,” a foul creature that was part woman, part bird.
  • Helen – symbol of a beautiful woman; from Helen of Troy.
  • Morphine – an alkaloid used to relieve pain and induce sleep. Morpheus was a god that could easily change shape.
  • Muse – a creature of inspiration. The daughters of [[Mnemosyne]] and Zeus, and divine singers that presided over thought in all its forms.
  • Narcissism – being in love with one’s own self-image. Named for Narcissus, a handsome young man who despised love, but fell in love with himself instead.
  • Odyssey – a long journey. Named for Odysseus, a character in The Odyssey, by Homer. Odysseus makes his long journey back from the Trojan War.
  • Pandora’s Box – Something that opens the door for bad occurrences, opened by someone known for curiosity. Named for Pandora, who opened a box of human ills.
  • Phoenix – a symbol of immortality or rebirth. Named after a long bird that consumed itself in fire, then rose renewed from the flame to start another long life.
  • Psyche – the human soul, self, the mind. Named after Psyche, a maiden who, after undergoing many hardships, reunited with her love.
  • Pygmalion – someone who tries to fashion someone into the person he desires. Comes from a myth adapted into a play by George Bernard Shaw.
  • Sibyl – a witch or sorceress; a priestess who had the gift of prophecy.
  • Tantalize – from King Tantalus, who reigned on Mt. Sipylus, and who was condemned to a river but couldn’t eat the beautiful food around him.
  • Titanic – grand and enormous. Named after Tityus, the son of Zeus and Elara, whose body covered nearly two acres.
  • Volcanoes – originated from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

sound sensory sensitivity

id : 20220831003751
type : undefined
keywords :

dates:: 2022-05-09
URL:: Sensory quietness for the soul - by Fei-Ling Tseng

Enjoyed the thinking process around this, as it stacks up with my experiences around sound. I wonder if people in the PKM space may be more sensitive to sound than the average. Also, sound radars give me hope.

Sources MOC

id : 20220923162932
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Content and links have been removed.

Sources MOC

This is where I keep tabs on some of the sources I have encountered.

What "sources" should you track? Check out the tags pane. Find "source" and twirl it down. The sources I have decided to include tracking over the years include: books, movies, songs, research papers, plays, paintings, quotes, videos, speeches, poems, tweets, articles, and newsletters.

Not included here, but in my personal vault, I enjoy checking out the comprehensive [[Source Starmap 🔭]] and perusing my [[Bookshelf 📚]]. And to honor the old ones, I also keep a Commonplace Book based on tags.

A data view from the Sources folder

This is a simple data view pulling anything from the Sources folder.

[!HINT]+ This data view 🔬 only renders in the free downloadable version.
If you are viewing this note on Obsidian Publish, you won't be able to see the magic unless you download the kit.
Note: If you can see the table below, you have already downloaded the LYT Kit.

table tags
from "Sources" and -#on/readme 
sort file.name asc

Spatial Context

id : 20220809192042
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Benefits of LYT frameworks
tags:: #on/PKM

Spatial Context

The Ancient Greeks and Roman notably relied on their memories to hold onto information. They developed mind palaces and other mnemonic devices. Central to their efforts of recalling things was placing bits of information into a spatial context.

It turns out we remember things really well if we can place them spatially in our minds. It's an extremely strong form of memory. A term for using a spatial context for memory is called the Method of Loci.

See the main maps I included in the Home note? Depending on your desires, you could always give them a basic numbering system—like 010 Mindsets and 020 Concepts to create a form of spatial context in the File Explorer in the sidebar.

Strong opinions, weakly held

id : 20220829215637
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Strong opinions, weakly held

This a long but powerful quote:

The fastest way to an effective forecast is often through a sequence of lousy forecasts. Instead of withholding judgment until an exhaustive search for data is complete, I will force myself to make a tentative forecast based on the information available, and then systematically tear it apart, using the insights gained to guide my search for further indicators and information. Iterate the process a few times, and it is surprising how quickly one can get to a useful forecast.


Since the mid-1980s, my mantra for this process is “strong opinions, weakly held.” Allow your intuition to guide you to a conclusion, no matter how imperfect — this is the “strong opinion” part. Then –and this is the “weakly held” part– prove yourself wrong. Engage in creative doubt. Look for information that doesn’t fit, or indicators that pointing in an entirely different direction. Eventually your intuition will kick in and a new hypothesis will emerge out of the rubble, ready to be ruthlessly torn apart once again. You will be surprised by how quickly the sequence of faulty forecasts will deliver you to a useful result. - Paul Saffo, circa 2008

Weak opinions are problematic because people aren’t inspired to develop the best arguments possible for them, or to put forth the energy required to test them.

Equally, don't be too attached to what you believe, otherwise, it undermines your ability to “see” and “hear” evidence that clashes with your opinions. This is what psychologists sometimes call the problem of "[[Confirmation Bias]]."" (not included in the LYT Kit)


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-05-28
    • created:: 2020-05-28

Survival of the Fittest

id : 20220829211504
type : undefined
keywords :

up::
tags:: #note/boat🚤

Survival of the Fittest

Wiki

"Survival of the Fittest" is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. In Darwinian terms, the phrase is best understood as "Survival of the form that will leave the most copies of itself in successive generations."

Herbert Spencer first used the phrase, after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, in his Principles of Biology (1864), in which he drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin's biological ones: "This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."Darwin responded positively to Alfred Russel Wallace's suggestion of using Spencer's new phrase "survival of the fittest" as an alternative to "natural selection", and adopted the phrase in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication published in 1868. In On the Origin of Species, he introduced the phrase in the fifth edition published in 1869, intending it to mean "better designed for an immediate, local environment".

Wikipedia


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2017
    • created:: 2017
    • coined:: 1864

Synthesis

id : 20220829214107
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Synthesis

The combining of separate elements or substances to form a coherent whole.

Related: [[Convergence]]

Example Usage, Keywords, Concepts, and Metaphors

  • Thesis. Antithesis. Synthesis [[201408190641]] - ie Hegelian dialectic MOCs are Dialectics
  • Chinese culture and Confucianism - Chinese civilization is the longest living because of its ability to synthesize disparate entities, like it's doing currently with Communism and Capitalism.
  • The Borg - via assimilation

Systems MOC (kit)

id : 20220825051121
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Library
tags:: #map

Systems MOC (kit)

This mapping note is in the gather phase. I'm thinking about systems often, so there may be a time soon where I start colliding these concepts in the develop phase (which is what [[Systems ♻️]] has become).

  • [[20220627023753|Convergence (defn)]]
  • [[20220807025816|Divergence (defn)]]
  • [[20220825051121|Complexity (defn)]]
  • [[20220627023753|Emergence (defn)]]
  • [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]
  • Fluid Thinking
  • FlowCreation MOC
  • [[20220627023753|Bottom-up thinking]]
  • Top-down thinking
  • Middle-out thinking
  • Heterarchy

Template, Daily Note (kit)

id : 20220825050658
type : undefined
keywords :

dates:: {{date}}

  • Three important action items today
    • Big:
    • Medium:
    • Small:
  • Log
  • Scratchpad
  • Wind Down
    • I am grateful for:
    • Today I spoke with:
    • Today I accomplished:

Template, Dates dates dates (kit)

id : 20220506013731
type : undefined
keywords :
Dates

MANAGING_CONTENT
dates:: (created)
dates:: (touched)
dates:: (modified)
dates:: (published)
dates:: (archived)
dates:: (paused)

MANAGING_PROJECTS
dates:: (started)
dates:: (ended)
dates:: (due)
dates:: (do)

CONSUMING_CONTENT
dates:: (started)
dates:: (finished)
dates:: (watched)

TRACKING_CONTENT
dates:: (coined)
dates:: (published)
dates:: (presented)
dates:: (premiered)

Template, Meeting (kit)

id : 20220825050906
type : undefined
keywords :

tags:: #log/meeting

{{date}} - Meeting

Notepad

  • asdf

Action items

  • asdf

Template, Note (kit)

id : 20220829005943
type : undefined
keywords :

up::
tags::

{{title}}

The 3 Phases of MOCs

id : 20220510005258
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: MOCs Overview
tags:: #on/PKM

The 3 Phases of MOCs

Welcome to the walkthrough on MOCs. Maps of Content are one of the ultimate thinking tools. But how do you unlock this new superpower?

In the real world it looks like this: you read something interesting on a topic—let's say on "habits"—and you make a note.

Later on, you make more notes on the same topic. Hmm, you say, "I'm starting to worry I might lose some of these ideas."

So to overcome this Mental Squeeze Point, you go ahead and make a new special kind of note...

MOCs have three basic, overlapping phases. Here is the outline you can expect to follow:

  • The 3 Phases of MOCs
    • [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Gather]]
    • [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Collide]]
    • Habits MOC - Navigate
  • [[20220829214605|The 3 Phases of MOCs, a coda]]

Next, go to [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Gather]]

The 3 Phases of MOCs, a coda

id : 20220829214605
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: The 3 Phases of MOCs
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

The 3 Phases of MOCs, a Coda

The 3 phases of MOCs are non-linear. They are not distinct like these examples. They overlap. They are messy. Don't make this rigid. Keep it fluid.

The process is overlapping and cyclical. In Italian 'coda' means 'tail', and in any cycle, the tail is closest to the head (like an [[Ouroboros]]). So don't worry if you tack on random notes to a formalized MOC—you should!

An MOC is rarely a finalized concrete statue. Instead, it should be able to freely evolve over time.

Or you could just create a new one... ;)


Perhaps you want to return to The 3 Phases of MOCs

Or maybe you want to Set Up Your Home Note?

The 5 Decade Rule

id : 20220911002832
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: People MOC
tags:: #concept #effort
dates:: 2022-01-01
rank:: 3

  • Outputs
    • output:: #output/youtube☑️ 2022-08-23 youtube.

The 5 Decade Rule

Listen to the thinkers and doers born five decades before you.
They are your grandparents, not of blood, but of ideas.

  • They are old enough to have already made their greatest contributions.
    • And those contributions have been vetted by the last 20-50 years.
  • They are young enough to come from the same cultural understandings.
  • They are old enough that you won't feel any competition towards them.
  • They are young enough you are able to see how they lived their life in a cultural context at least somewhat similar to your own.
  • It makes me think of a peculiar goal: to be what they are to me.
    • To have someone 50 years younger than me—not in my family—deeply express how my thoughts have changed their life. I guess I will be on the lookout in the year 2066...
    • What exactly are they to me? I hope to share in a slow-burning series of love letters to the thinkers and doers that danced before me in the ongoing tapestry of thoughts and actions that help color our human story.

I see an OVERLAY WINDOW listing out what I'm saying. Title in the upper left: Why the 5 Decade Rule works. Subtitle: Old Enough. Bullet: Your Idea Grandparent's greatest contributions have already been made and vetted as long as you've been alive. Subtitle2: Young Enough. Bullet: You still share enough of the same historical context with your Idea Grandparents to easily understand their ideas.

Progeny of this concept

I point to my PKM system for surfacing this [[happy little accident]].

It was an epiphany that hit me as I made a special view to show relevant people of prominence in my PKM system

Efforts

Youtube script

Hook

Find your favorite thinkers and doers born five decades before you.

They are your grandparents—not of blood, but of ideas.

And they can help you, more than others.

In the following, I'll share: how I discovered this, why it works, and how you can use it (plus a surprising takeaway at the end).

Let's roll.

CTA: Sub

But first, it's crazy that over 77% of you are not subscribed. That's what I get for not asking. If you've been watching, and you're enjoying, please subscribe, because it helps me make more videos for you. Cool? Okay, let's go.

Intro

If you only organize alphabetically, you are missing out. To really understand something, every piece of context can really help. We already do this with our notes with things like "Date Created", but what about with people. Wouldn't be kinda cool to organize by date born?

Actually it is. It tells you so much it's ridiculous we don't do it more often. So let's do some People Mapping now, and see how that led to the 5 Decade Rule...

P1: Discovering the 5 Decade Rule through People Mapping

%%walkthrough of Obsidian and Prominent People, the hardest part%%
So I was note-making one day and decided to do this for people...

I point to my PKM system for surfacing this [[happy little accident]].

It was an epiphany that hit me as I made a special view to show relevant people of prominence in my PKM system.

When you have your own linked world of ideas, you will find these epiphanies happening consistently.

P2: Why the 5 Decade Rule works

What do [[20220909053959|Carl Sagan (kit)]] and [[20220825014351|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (kit)]] have in common? They were born the same year. And that year

  • They are old enough to have already made their greatest contributions.
    • And those contributions have been vetted as long as you've been alive.
  • They are young enough to come from the same cultural understandings.
    • Meaning, you are able to see how they lived their life in a cultural context at least somewhat similar to your own.

P3: How to use the 5 Decade Rule

Take a moment, right now, and think about the big idea influencers in your life. Make a quick list. 5 people. Maybe more. But at least five.

Now, go online and find out what year they were born.

Let me say this clearly: It is a big, BIG problem if everyone you learn from is in their 20's. The best and most enriching way to learn is to learn from people from all ages—from every decade—and the majority of people you learn from should already be dead.

So now, after you've grabbed their birth year, any patterns emerging?

Let's go deeper. After doing this exercise, take a moment to recognize the extra questions you started asking yourself. This is where the magic happens that's so hard to pin down. But let's put a spotlight on it. For Carl Sagan and Mihaly, I want to know where they were during World War II. They were both kids then. How did that impact their psyche? Who else did I resonate with that was born in a similar period of time?

This is what you get, when you give yourself a gift of a well-linked thinking environment.

In this process, I hope you come to realize how much you may have missed out on organizing books, movies, and even people—by birth date.

Conclusion: A surprising takeaway

As I was thinking about all of this, it struck me: a worthwhile goal.

  • It makes me think of a peculiar goal: to be what they are to me.
    • To have someone (not in my family) 5 decades younger than me, deeply express how my thoughts have changed their life...to be what they are to me.
    • I guess I will be on the lookout in the late 2060's...

Outro

Hey, I hope you enjoyed the 5 Decade Rule. It's a nice concept handle. Please, please, please share your Idea Grandparents in the comments below. Let's get inspired by each other.

And until next time my friends, Stay Connected!

The big differences between efforts and projects

id : 20220903012203
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Efforts

What are the big differences between efforts and projects?

Here are the 3 biggest differences between "efforts" and "projects":

Efforts don’t force a top-down mindset

A top-down mindset will suffocate ideas. When we worked on assembly lines and in big corporate offices, projects made sense because order and linearity reigned. But today, more and more of us are working with ideas, and ideas need room to grow, evolve, and have a chance to fully form into whatever they might be becoming.

Efforts are freeing.

Efforts don’t need a deadline

Projects require deadlines. But efforts are flexible, fluid, and adaptable. They can have no deadlines, hard deadlines, soft deadlines—and likely various deadlines for various versions of the same idea outputted to different mediums in different final forms.

Efforts are fluid.

Efforts don’t have a clear size

They can be bigger than projects, or smaller, and oftentimes their size is hard to know. I’m writing a book. That’s a single effort with probably over 100 projects. Am I really going to make it into 100 projects and track them all? With an "efforts-mindset" I don't have to.

Instead, efforts and projects work in tandem: a smaller project organically spins out of a larger effort. I can tackle the project, and then confidently refocus on the larger effort.

Efforts are expandable.

Learn How ideas and efforts play nicely together.

The forest entrance

id : 20220923163129
type : undefined
keywords :

Welcome to the LYT Kit.

LYT stands for Linking Your Thinking.

Learn about the 5-week workshop here. Lose less, think better.

»» Download the LYT Kit ««
%% If you are reading this, you already downloaded it. %%

  • Want a sandbox to play in?
  • Want a starter kit?

Oh the places you'll go...

But first:

If we mostly agree, then:

The Home note vs The MOC Library

id : 20220829220548
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

The Home note vs Library

The Home note is like the [[1942 - Foundation Series (1942-93)|First Foundation]], while the Library note is like the Second Foundation.

  • The first foundation is about ingenuity and free will.
  • The second foundation is about structuring chaos acceptably.

The Id

id : 20220505061552
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

The "Id"

I am the "It"

  • The source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives.
  • Aroused by increases in instinctual tension.
  • The disorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives.

Related

[[20220512053552|No-Face]] - essentially embodies the Id

The LYT Workshop

id : 20220831165805
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #source/course

The LYT Workshop

Imagine having 1,000 of your favorite ideas all in one place. Your favorite concepts, quotes, and memories finally all connected in one living, powerful system.

Think of this as your Ideaverse—and it's what you will create during the workshop.

In the "Linking Your Thinking" (LYT) Workshop you will create your custom—and future-proof—PKM system. PKM stands for Personal Knowledge Management.

The LYT Workshop is an online workshop that will teach, train, and support you in building a PKM system you can trust.

You will learn a proven method to:

  • Do your best thinking, more often
  • Reliably organize your knowledge
  • Unlock your unique perspective
  • Generate more insights

And as a side benefit you will:

  • Rediscover the joy of thinking.

The workshop is also a community-driven learning experience. Learning with your fellow students is the best way to accelerate your own efforts.

Linking Your Thinking is all about making a change in your relationship with knowledge.

Build the place for your thoughts that you've always wanted.

Build Your Custom PKM System Now.

The mechanism for breaking through development plateaus

id : 20220829211533
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit #on/Practice #on/excellence #on/AQ #on/body #on/strength

The mechanism for breaking through development plateaus

To break through the a-curve plateau, we must get out of our newly established "automatic mindset", and return to a beginner's "cognitive mindset".

Physical development by strength training is the clearest example.
Russian Conjugate Periodization [^1]—used for the physical development of Olympic athletes—shows how to "game" the curve by evolving the routine around every 4-5 weeks, which forces the muscles into their own form of "cognitive thinking."

  • [ ] Needs more clarification on "gaming" the curve

A key term here is "adaption." (explore Tom Mysklinski's article to put it into context)

Perhaps continual improvement through this lens can be summed up with a phrase used by the US Marine Corps, Viggo Mortensen, and Clint Eastwood:

“Adapt and Overcome."

It’s just about knowing what to overcome…and with skill development, that's called Deliberate Practice.


Catchy title example

"The A-Curve To Excellence: how to "game" the Asymptotic Curve to Improve your Skills, increase your strength, etcetera, etcetera

[^1]: Known as the Conjugate Sequence System and developed by the Soviets, it involves overlapping training arcs, with micro and macro cycles that include unloading phases.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2015-02-20
    • created:: 2015-02-20
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

The neural formation of habits is additive

id : 20220829183314
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit

The neural formation of habits is additive

I attended a presentation of "Portraits of the Mind" by Carl Schoonover. He showed pictures of how dendrites grow spines for better connections to synapses. Carl showed a video of neural networks forming.

Now more than ever, we are starting to witness the neural formation of habits—and it is physically additive, while being calorically subtractive. In this sense, [[20220829214455|Newton's Law of Inertia]] is poetically upheld.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2015-02-20
    • created:: 2015-02-20
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

The neural formation of habits is additive - v1

id : 20220617184828
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Gather]]

The neural formation of habits is additive - v1

I attended a presentation of "Portraits of the Mind" by Carl Schoonover. He showed pictures of how dendrites grow spines for better connections to synapses. Carl showed a video of neural networks forming. Now more than ever, we are starting to witness the neural formation of habits.

My Thoughts
A habit is a mirror, it gives what you give it, and what you were given is what you'll give. It's the immediate expression of the law of Cause and Effect

Change your mind to change your brain to change your mind. Reminds of a tautological Feedback Loop.

Just like Newton's Law of Conservation states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; so with habits are that for every action, taking the same action again will require less effort. Neural connections were made and repeated actions optimize them. They become more efficient.

"Neurons that fire together wire together” - Hebb's Rule

"Passing mental states become lasting neural traits” - maybe Rick Hanson

We can only surmise as to why, but to me it has clear evolutionary advantages. Any action we take burns calories and uses either our physical muscles, our mental muscles (like the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a crucial player in willpower management), or both. By making a repeated action easier, less energy is used, less willpower is required, and fewer calories are burned—all of which lead to a better chance of survival.

See also: [[20220510002929|The truest habit metaphors are additive - v1]]

The Riddle IS the Answer (kit)

id : 20220829180121
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829183036|Trust the process (kit)]]
tags:: #source/speech

The Riddle IS the Answer (kit)

What's up with public restrooms having all those scribbles on the walls?

  • Tina loves Joey."
  • "For a good time call this number."

I mean, who does that? Well, one time I did.

But first, some back story...I was 18 and was back from my first semester in college. It was the holiday season. Christmas Eve actually. And my dad said we could open presents a day early if we solved his riddle. So he gave us one of the best and hardest riddle of all time. A riddle for the ages. (If we have time, I'll share it with you at the end.)

I chewed on the riddle trying to solve it. I wrestled with it. It was frustrating, and yet surprisingly, kinda fun.

Then my brother emerged from the computer room and he blurted out the answer (this pre-dates everyone having cell phones). So with the riddle solved we were able to open presents.

You'd think I would have been happy to open presents; but I wasn't. I was disappointed because I was robbed of a wonderful riddle.

My dad wouldn't live much longer, so moments like these weighed heavy on me. I wanted the riddle to live on, so two weeks later I was back in the college dorms, writing the whole thing out on the wall of the bathroom stall. (And pleading with them not to go online to find the answer.)

Everyone soon found out about the riddle and word reached them that I wrote it. Then something amazing happened. For weeks, the whole floor in the dormitory would stop me and ask if they had the right answer. They didn't fast-forward, the didn't cheat the riddle—and it was a lot of fun.

Because that's the thing about life that we keep forgetting. We are addicted to the answer. Even now, some of you are getting antsy because you are conditioned (and entitled) to be drip-fed the answers.

But it's not the answer that matters. It's the riddle.

The riddle IS the answer.

It's a means unto itself, full of its own joy and fulfillment.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-01-01
    • created:: 2014-01-01
    • modified:: 2022-03-15

The Riddle of Two Paths (kit)

id : 20220829183218
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829183036|Trust the process (kit)]]
tags:: #on/riddle #on/AQ

The Riddle of Two Paths

On your journey to happiness, you come to a fork in the road where upon two identical twin trolls with hooked noses and big, thick sausage fingers are lounging on five feet tall tree stumps eating rabbit.

You've heard of this place—and these trolls. One fork on the road leads to Happiness: where all your friends and family are waiting to throw you a party and play your favorite music and dance around the fire laughing.

The other path leads to Sadness: where everyone you know is hunched over with frowny faces and nothing to eat but tree bark and slugs.

You don't know which path is which. But you know the legend:

One twin troll only tells lies. The other twin troll only tells the truth. And you don't know which twin troll is which!

Even worse...to figure out which path leads to Happiness, You can only ask one of the trolls, one question.

(After that, they'll just ignore you and eat more rabbit.)

What is the one question you can ask (just one of the trolls) to make sure you choose the road that leads to Happiness?


This version has been re-written by Nick, but of course the riddle itself remains intact.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-02-16

The truest habit metaphors are additive

id : 20220829183155
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/mind

The truest habit metaphors are additive

There are two metaphorical ways to talk about habits: additive and subtractive.

Subtractive
When you repeat the same action, it's like walking the same path: eventually a trail forms. [^1]

Additive
When you repeat the same action, it's like adding another strand to a string: eventually that string becomes a rope, and that rope becomes a cable.

I say additive is the truest metaphor for habit formation because that's what is happening in the brain. Actions cause specific neurons to connect. The more they connect, the more efficient they become at connecting. This is through dendrites growing spines (see The neural formation of habits is additive).

To conclude, even those neural formations are additive.

Counterpoint

But they're not actually. Consider the trail. Even though the removal of undergrowth and twigs seems subtractive, it's actually additive from the POV of throughput. The amount of content and/or the speed of travel has increased.

[^1]: As I return to this old idea, I'm struck with a contradiction. While the terrain wears away (subtractive), the speed of travel increases (additive). So if the point of reference changes from the terrain to the traveler, even the subtractive example contains an additive component. 2020-05-27


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014
    • created:: 2014

The truest habit metaphors are additive - v1

id : 20220510002929
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220813003331|Habits MOC - Gather]]

The truest habit metaphors are additive - v1

There are two metaphorical ways to talk about habits: additive and subtractive.

Subtractive
When you repeat the same action, it's like walking the same path: eventually a trail forms. [^1]

Additive
When you repeat the same action, it's like adding another strand to a string: eventually that string becomes a rope, and that rope becomes a cable.

I say additive is the truest metaphor for habit formation because that's what is happening in the brain. Actions cause specific neurons to connect. The more they connect, the more efficient they become at connecting. This is through dendrites growing spines. For more, see [[20220617184828|The neural formation of habits is additive - v1]].


[^1]: As I return to this old idea, I'm struck with a contradiction. While the terrain wears away (subtractive), the speed of travel increases (additive). So if the point of reference changes from the terrain to the traveler, even the subtractive example contains an additive component. 2020-05-27

Thinking MOC

id : 20220829214102
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Home
tags:: #map

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Thinking MOC

It's time to give "thinking" the space it deserves. Let's cultivate this inherently rich endeavor.

My first stop for thinking is to the Notebox where I do what's easy. That means bouncing from note to note, developing them in a special way to maintain Flow. I keep the Concepts MOC handy because I believe a handful of core concepts influence our entire worldview in disproportionately powerful ways. These notes help me make leaps of insights while connecting new ideas to existing concepts.

I'm a big believing in the power of prompts. A couple good prompts is enough to kickstart my thinking. That's why I have so many notes on prompts such as "The NoMa Method", the "7 C's", and even the "11 C's". But for the LYT Kit, I'll just point you towards Refraction Thinking and Levels of Magnification.

If you want to solve a problem and gain clarity, a nice concept to brush up on is the OODA Loop.

Outside the scope of the LYT Kit are my joyful suite of mind exercises. I love jumping into the gauntlet of [[Thought Unpacking]] and [[Thought Enriching]]—both of which generate large quantities of Thought Collisions. The "unpacking" is best to prompt critical and analytical thinking. The "enriching" is best to exercise the lateral, creative, and metaphorical muscles of the mind.

Want more mind training?

  • Go to [[Meditation Jaunts]] and [[Brief Meditation Sequences]] to slow down and reset.
  • Go to a few of your [[Mind Palaces]] to work your visualizing muscles.
  • Combine the mental with the physical for the world-champion [[Lucia Stance]]
  • A few grounding tactics are to brush up the FlowCreation MOC and Habits MOCs.

Always remember, one of the best prompting tools out there is the thesaurus. So when you want to both jumpstart and enrich your thinking, grab a thesaurus and go on a [[Word Excursion]].

Definitions

Let's define some overlapping conceptual categories:

  • Concept: A concept is a pattern, truth, or mechanism that has been given a name.
  • Mental Models are specific readily-available patterns or mechanisms that—when applied to a current situation or thing—allow for efficient, optimal action. Great for strategic agency and in-the-moment adaptability.
  • Metaphors are primarily for relating unlike things. Great for creative expression and a means unto itself.
  • Refraction Thinking is primarily for broadening perspective and deepening understanding. Great for reviewing, planning, empathizing, and meditating.

Three thinking styles

  1. Top-down thinking
  2. [[20220627023753|Bottom-up thinking]]
  3. Middle-out thinking

It's a travesty to not have a rich inner world. How are you cultivating yours?

Wander leads to wonder. I wonder, what does wonder lead to?

Thought Collisions

id : 20220828192413
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: MOCs are both workbenches and maps
tags:: #on/PKM

Thought Collisions

Ideas are forged from thoughts coming together and talking.

Why not figure out a way to have related thoughts talk to each other more frequently—and at a higher level of intensity?

That's the idea behind the question:

How can we maximize "Thought Collisions"?

"Thought Collisions" are when you have thoughts interact with other thoughts.

Their measurement is in the interaction and exchange of ideas. This is largely a metric that can't be measured, but it's still helpful to consider what effective thinking feels like.

Here's the expanded question:

How can we maximize the Frequency, Quality, and Reliability of Thought Collisions?

The answer? By using MOCs (Maps of Content).

MOCs become a tightly-packed room where ideas have to jostle for positioning and figure things out. It's the “the room where it happens".

Triangulation-1a (Drawing)

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Truffle hunters need to keep perspective, so do parachutists

id : 20220829214056
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Levels of Magnification

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Truffle hunters need to keep perspective, so do parachutists

“All historians are either truffle hunters, their noses buried in the details, or parachutists, hanging high in the air and looking for general patterns in the countryside far below them.” - Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

The best solution? Being able to exercise Fluid Thinking and fly around the Levels of Magnification.


Bob Bain mentioned this quote along with the passage:

academic tribalism rarely encourages boundary crossing. each then within own field , with some exceptions, forces a "short-term" narrow focus for both research and study. Zooming in, of course, is important, but then so is zooming out to see larger patterns, connections, and if one zooms out far enough, you can peer into what neighboring or even distant "tribe" is doing. One of my favorite quotes comes from Ladurie (French historian) who talked about the virtues of being a parachutist and a truffle hunter -- to that I'd add being a time lord, like Dr. Who (I'm with you [[Steen Comer]] about science fiction's role).


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-06-16
    • created: 2020-06-16

Trust the process (kit)

id : 20220829183036
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Is LYT For Me
tags:: #on/Reps
X:: [[20220829183218|The Riddle of Two Paths (kit)]]
X:: [[20220829180121|The Riddle IS the Answer (kit)]]

Trust the process (kit)

When I was young, my dad said we could open presents a day early if we solved his riddle. I chewed on the riddle trying to solve it. It was riveting to have a good riddle.

Then my brother emerged from the computer room (having just been on the internet) and he blurted out the answer. You'd think I would have been happy to open presents; but instead I was disappointed because I was robbed of a juicy riddle.

It's not the answer, it's the riddle itself that matters. Or put another way, the riddle IS the answer. It's a means unto itself, full of its own joy and fulfillment. The Process is Fulfilling.

The Process forces us to think critically, categorize ideas, relate them to similar ideas, come up with metaphors/analogies/stories to better convey those ideas. The Process improves Thinking.

The Process solidifies thoughts you deem worthy of remembering, and by working The Process, you strengthen the ability to recall those worthy things in your life. The Process strengthens Memory.

Most importantly, it's not the destination but the journey. Or put another way, the journey IS the destination.

Trust the Process. The Process is the Answer.


This is also part of a speech. See: [[Speech MOC]]


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2019-08-13
    • created:: 2019-08-13

Understanding the habit cycle and habitual cues

id : 20220829182950
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit #on/PD

Understanding the habit cycle and habitual cues

The Habit Cycle

Charles Duhigg made popular a three-step process of habit formation. Later, James Clear argued for a fourth step "craving", which I always felt was missing as well. Here's the cycle as I see it:

  • Cue (Make it Obvious vs Invisible)
  • Craving (Make it Attractive vs Unattractive) - timing is important
  • Routine (Make it Easy vs Difficult)
  • Reward (Make it Satisfying vs Unsatisfying) - Behaviors that are immediately rewarded get repeated. Behaviors that are immediately punished don't get repeated. That's why you need to make it enjoyable in the moment. One way is tying your identity to it. Frame your rewards.

For more, see How Atomic Habits fit into the conversation on habits.

Duhigg calls the most important habits "Keystone Habits". These are the special habits, that by doing, make all the other habits that much easier to accomplish. I've identified my keystone habits, which I'm coining as "resiliency routines" because my mindset has been forever altered by the concept of Antifragility. See which Resiliency Routines help regain a sense of control.

Types of habitual cues

  1. Location
  2. Time
  3. Emotional State
  4. Other People
  5. Immediately preceding action

Here's an example of me Charting out habit cycles in my life circa 2013.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2013-03-10
    • created:: 2013-03-10
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Use it or Lose it

id : 20220821051242
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #concept #note/develop🍃

Use it or Lose it

This is another example of where the Selfish Gene is acting. Since Habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage it's always adjusting to what we are up to. One of the fundamental truism emerges once again:

![[It's circular but true, we become what we do#^f8ca0f]]

More

In what areas does this apply?

Where does it not apply as much?

Mention strength training for sure. And relate this to spaced repetition.

Using the thesaurus to generate ideas

id : 20220829214050
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Word Excursion]]

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

Using the thesaurus to generate ideas

Let's treat words like ideas

This is an example of using something as fundamental as WORDS to generate ideas and opinions.

  • Belated: on time - Ant: punctual — CI: 820
    • Birthday. This makes me think of...Facebook and birthday notifications.
    • [[Facebook does a lot of harm]].
      • [[By amplifying the most emotionally-charged posts, Facebook contributes to actual violence]].
  • Exhaustive: no stone unturned, all-encompassing, encyclopedic — 531, 772
    • Exhausting, tired,
    • Wikipedia is fairly exhaustive. It's funny how teachers said not to use it, but now everyone uses it. I guess a question, how do we verify sources?
  • Quickly: briskly, rapidly, swiftly — CI: 588, 799

Vulnerability

id : 20220830023300
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[2012 📚Daring Greatly]] (not included in the LYT Kit)

Vulnerability

I am uncertain and emotionally exposed

Vulnerability is “uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.”[^1] The word Vulnerability is derived from the Latin word vulnerare, meaning “to wound.” The definition includes “capable of being wounded: and “open to attack or damage.” On the other hand, weakness is defined as the “inability to withstand attack or wounding.”[^2]

Vulnerability is based on mutuality and requires boundaries and trust. It’s not oversharing, it’s not purging, it’s not indiscriminate disclosure, and it’s not social media information dumping. Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them. Being vulnerable and open is mutual and an integral part of the trust-building process.

“Until we can receive with an open heart, we are never really giving with an open heart. When we attach judgment to receiving help, we knowingly or unknowingly attach judgment to giving help.” [^3]

Learning how to lean into the discomfort of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure is a painful but rewarding process. So is saying “no” to your friends and acquaintances You may be terrified that you will piss off a friend or squander a professional opportunity. Try saying saying more often. You might find that you don’t regret it. Nothing may transform your life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate your worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.

Vulnerability is the bridge to authenticity / emotions / and connection. Vulnerability is strength. Vulnerability equals courage.

[^1]: Brown, C. Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. 1st ed, Gotham Books, 2012. p34.
[^2]: Brown, C. Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. 1st ed, Gotham Books, 2012. p39.
[^3]: Brown, C. Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. 1st ed, Gotham Books, 2012. p53.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-12-13
    • created:: 2014-12-13

We chronically underestimate how long something takes

id : 20220830023308
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[Cognitive Bias MOC]] (not included in the LYT Kit)
tags:: #note/develop🍃

We chronically underestimate how long something takes

If you're confident about time management, you have a problem.

Cognitive Bias...what's this called?

When has this happened to me?

We've already discovered aliens...we just call them bees

id : 20220825031613
type : undefined
keywords :

dates:: 2022-05-02

We've already discovered aliens...we just call them bees

This thought was inspired from an episode of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Learn more about bees!

What are higher-order notes

id : 20220829221818
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

What are higher-order notes?

First let's zoom out. Every note in a note library is a note. They come in two basic varieties:

  1. A note with mostly words
  2. A note with mostly links to other notes

Let's agree for the moment that a "note-with-mostly-words" is less complex than a "note-with-mostly-links".

A note with mostly links can therefore be considered a higher-order note. It is still a note, but all those links help to provide some sort of structure that adds complexity to the note itself.

Let's explore the wonderful world of higher-order notes.

What can we call higher-order notes?

Adding a new word to our vocabulary opens up new ways of thinking and expressing. Limiting our vocabulary—like Big Brother does in George Orwell's 1984—is a sinister way to limit our thinking.

With that in mind, instead of trying to limit what we can higher-order notes, we should explore the many flavors of them. Here's a non-exhaustive list of things we can call higher-order notes.

  • Link Note - A note with a bunch of links.
  • Hub Note - A navigational note, like an airport hub (a Luhmann term).
  • Index Note - A note that references other notes (sometimes but not always alphabetical).
  • Workbench - A brainstorm-y note with a links hastily assembled.
  • Outline Note - A note for the early-stage outlining of content.
  • Structure Note - A term that describes what it does: structures stuff.
  • Structure Zettel - A term from zettelkasten.de - Usually shown as a linear Table of Contents, often with annotations.
  • Table of Contents - A finalized structure that references material
  • MOC (Map of Content) - A flexible higher-order note that serves all the above purposes of gathering, outlining, structuring, and navigating. In addition, it is an active thinking tool that allows for the reshaping, connecting, and building of ideas.

Here's what else an MOC can do:

  • MOCs can structure links in completely countless and non-linear ways.
  • MOCs can be a combo of links and tags and text and embeds and anything you can think of.
  • MOCs can be linked to other MOCs (Emergence Level 4), which eventually link to a Home note (Emergence Level 5).
  • And most valuable, [[MOCs concentrate & accelerate idea interaction]].

Now let's answer the question: [[Why call higher-order notes MOCs]]?


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2020-06-28
    • created:: 2020-06-28

What can we learn from nerdy discussions on MOCs

id : 20220831194508
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

What can we learn from nerdy discussions on MOCs?

Sometimes the best way of understanding something is hearing what people have to say about it.

What is an MOC, in 10 seconds?

  • A non-exclusive folder with a completely customized organizational structure.
  • In an MOC, the party is always happening. It's the "room where it happens." Individual notes can “shadow-clone” themselves and essentially be in multiple parties simultaneous—interacting and developing complexity from each party at the same time!
  • Another way to consider MOCs is through "Idea Emergence". MOCs are Evergreen notes, just at the next level of emergence.

  • Aren't MOCs just index notes?
    • No! MOCs are not static way-points. They are thinking, creating, and writing tools. We are not just map readers. We are the map makers.

  • It seems to me creating MOCs creates more work, therefore distracts from note creation, writing and thinking. I cannot see the magic of it.
    • Making MOCs don't distract from note creating and writing, they are note creating and writing.
    • That's where the magic happens.
    • What is the magic? It's having a thinking tool that forces difficult conversations, that highlights holes in arguments, that shines a bright light on ideas that to be developed further.
    • See MOCs are Dialectics for more on this terribly awesome power.

  • Why do you need a MOC to lead to other new notes? Isn't that what Direct Links are all about? ...... In other words, what does an MOC achieve that Direct Links don't?
    • Direct Links are the strongest links. But many times we do not want a strong link. We want weaker links. Tags do this and so does naming notes starting with the topic, like: Mandarin - NOTE1, Mandarin - NOTE132.
    • But neither tags, nor alphabetical filenames, allow for a fluid conversation between notes to happen, where their relative positioning can change. MOCs allow for that.
    • In a sense, they allow for mini-folgezettels. It's hard to get over how powerful of a thinking tool this is.

What does X mean in metadata

id : 20220829214654
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Meta PKM
tags:: #on/PKM

What does X mean in metadata

Although "X" is not a word, it can quickly be intuited.

X is a connection. An intersection. X is intentionally fuzzy. We know it's relevant or related but sometimes it's too early and delicate to start defining everything. Using X is a quick placeholder. Ideally, some of the X's get worked into the body of the note.

In a play: "What is X if not everything? Doth X not mark the spot?"

What is a note

id : 20220911002552
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #output/multiple

  • Outputs
    • output:: #output/lesson 2020-11-12 - lesson
    • output:: #output/youtube☑️ 2021-01-08 - youtube.

What is a note?

What is a note?

A note is any container of thought.

Pretty broad, huh?

Let's think about it: "Note to Self", "Yes sir, Noted sir!"

A note could be a sticky note or scribbles on a napkin that you've kept around for years (like this..)

A note could be a single idea, or an entire library of thoughts. It can hold data about a person, or log the phases of the moon. The contents of a note are limited only by our imaginations.

If a note is "any container of thought" then that means the internet has more notes than any one person read in their entire life a thousand times over.

So let's tighten our definition of a note so it's more practical.

For you and me, when we talk about a note, we're really talking about containers of thought that mean something to us.

That means it doesn't matter what's on the entire internet. Which is a relief. Because we don't have to be overwhelmed by all of that. What matter is what notes we've personally taken—and personally made.

Take note:

A note is a container of thought that has meaning for the person who made it.


Extra Credit Rant

So it's a bit subjective. "One person's trash is another person's treasure."

And at their best, our notes are treasures.

At their worst, our notes are overwhelming distraction-riddled collections of thoughts we've never read that actually act as this static NOISE that distracts us and discourages us from spending time with more meaningful notes. ^0bffe4

This is the Collector's Fallacy and it's practiced by the information hoarders, so scared to lose some drop of water from the never-ending information stream, that they never have any time to actually drink from it. ^e19640

Those people sure have a lot of notes. A lot of "containers of thoughts". It's just too bad they've never enjoyed them. ^dd5058

Instead of just hoarding information like an addict, what if we just took a bit of it—a sliver of something that is interesting or meaningful—and we chewed on it. Savored it. Digested it. to mix metaphors, what if we wrestled with it, got to know it...in such a way, that we could explain it to a friend—and they'd get it!

Information hoarders can't explain the ideas they encounter. They might be able to regurgitate them. And they would even be rewarded for it in today's world with more digital followers. But what a corrupt value system that is. They are choosing surface-level regurgitation that deprives them of the joy that comes from thinking itself.

They are trading a nourished soul, for applause.


If you've read books that meant a lot to you in the moment, but now it feels like you have nothing to show for it... If you have years of knowledge that you've either forgotten, or that you're not growing in value of over time... it's quite possible you're in the trap of note-taking instead of note-making.

Here's a test for you: Look at the notes you've taken from 2 to 3 years ago. How many of them have you continued to grow and link to other ideas and experiences?

If the answer is none, or if it sounds like I'm speaking a foreign language, then you might benefit from learning how to make notes and link ideas that nourish your soul now, and keep growing in value long into the future.

There's a workshop just for that.

%% PSA jingle "the more you know" %%
%% This is just another public service announcement from Linking Your Thinking! %%


Next: [[20220829221818|What are higher-order notes]]


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2021-01-08

Why Categories for Your Notes are a Good Idea

id : 20220813004859
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: LYT Kit
tags:: #on/PKM

Why Categories for Your Notes are a Good Idea

The idea that "categories are bad" hinges on a faulty notion that categories limit access and cause rigidity that inhibit organic thinking.

That argument applies to a system of folders. It does not apply to more fluid structures. Let's explore...

Argument 1
Creating categories is a top-down process. You start with the structure and then file the material away. Notes will have to fit the structure. If they don’t, there’ll have to be a compromise. [^1]

Counter
If a categorizing framework is set up to be fluid, it is not top down. Notes do not have to fit its structure. There is no compromise. In the case of a Home note, it's a pre-existing structure that you can tether to only when you care to. It adds context without limiting access.

Here is that same picture: Wolverine is the note, and your Home note is just another tether:

Argument 2
Static categories are rigid. Our brains are not rigid. Therefore static categories inhibit our knowledge from growing organically.

Counter
This is still assuming that "categories equal top-down oppressive hierarchies."But with Maps of Content (MOCs), it's quite the opposite. MOCs spring up organically as the need arises for them. An example is this kit's note called: LYT Kit; I didn't start with that; I instinctually grasped for it once I felt I had too many notes everywhere.

Argument 3
I don't have categories and I'm doing fine.

Counter
Do you have more than 300 notes or so? You have categories. You just aren't calling them that.

  • Tags are a form of category, they are fluid. They don't scale well as your note collection grows though. [^2]
  • Starred notes are another form of mostly fluid structuring.
  • Do you have "daily notes" or timestamped notes? Certainly seems like a category to me; and a rigid one at that! [^3]
    If you only have notes that are directly linked to other notes—and nothing else—then you can truly say you have no categories. The price for no categorization is steep.

Please read about the framework most likely to produce a paradigm shift in your knowledge management game: MOCs Overview.


[^1]: Source: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/no-categories/ From one of the leading minds, Christian is a voice I cherish and he has greatly influenced the broader zettelkasten community.
[^2]: But if you have Boolean searches to your notes, it mostly can mitigate the scaling problem—then you'd just have to remember the correct tags, which in practice isn't a certainty.
[^3]: Even though it's a more rigid category, I just can't give up on the multi-pronged power of the Temporal Context. Give up chronologically-date notes at your own discretion. Your future self may be disappointed.

Wim Hof

id : 20220825051121
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: People MOC
tags:: #people #on/breathing
dates:: 1959 -

Wim Hof

I'm a big fan of the adventurous and ecclectic Iceman. Here's an essay: [[20220829194733|Exploring Wim Hof's Breath Manipulation (kit)]].

Wiki

Wim Hof (born 20 April 1959), also known as The Iceman, is a Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures. He has set Guinness World Records for swimming under ice and prolonged full-body contact with ice, and previously held the record for a barefoot half marathon on ice and snow. He attributes these feats to his Wim Hof Method (WHM), a combination of frequent cold exposure, breathing techniques, yoga and meditation. Hof has been the subject of several medical assessments and a book written by investigative journalist Scott Carney.

Wikipedia

Without the Odyssey, there is no Ulysses

id : 20220831005722
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: [[20220829215412|Idea Emergence (defn)]]
X:: [[Kate Bush, Stranger Things, & Idea Emergence]]

[!NOTE]+ Notes on this note
This is a sanitized version of my actual note.

  • Some content and links have been removed.

I wanted to make this a note to capture a snapshot of the ever-elusive Idea Emergence.

Without the Odyssey, there is no Ulysses

The creative process is hard to capture as it's happening. Here is an attempt to capture
a tiny example of how ideas emerge...

I recently re-stumbled across a term called "Intertextuality". Intertextuality describes how past things are referenced in new things.

It is related to "Idea Emergence". Idea Emergence describes how that referencing system actually works.

The Wikipedia article for Intertextuality mentioned James Joyce's novel Ulysses as an example. I read some of the article. Then I did nothing. No notes. No highlights. No comments.

But that's okay, because seeds were planted that would lead to a simple and unexpected emergence.

The next day, I was writing a newsletter.

I wanted to make point about Idea Emergence. I wanted to say that our past experiences affect our future ideas in unpredictable ways.

I started typing "Without past inspirations..."

That triggered my brain to fire up and I was reminded of a familiar quote:

Without Ithaca, there would be no Odyssey.

And that led to my emergent breakthrough. I merged the following:

  • The quote structure ("without BLANK, there would be no BLANK")
  • The quote topic (The Odyssey)
  • Another topic I recently encountered (Intertextuality, Joyce, and Ulysses)

into this breakthrough:

Without the Odyssey, there is no Ulysses.

Pretty cool, right! (At least I was excited about it.)

That's my attempt to capture a tiny example of how Idea Emergence works in powerful ways. And we can create the conditions around us to make these emergent moments happen more reliably.

How?

By linking things together. Something I call "linking your thinking".

Linking your thinking sets up the conditions for you to consistently experience the wondrous creative power and joy of Idea Emergence.

How can you start?

Stop messing around with shiny distractions. Start making notes and linking notes. Don't get caught up over-analyzing. Don't try to create the perfect system. Just make notes and link those notes to other notes.

All the other stuff isn't going to matter if you don't do the fundamentals.

Without the fundamentals, there is no flow.

Without the basics, there is no breakthrough.

(You try one!)

Without BLANK, there is no BLANK.

Email me with yours (or tweet me at @nickmilo)!


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2022-06-26

Words I've used to describe important habits

id : 20220830023515
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit, #on/PD

Words I've used to describe important habits

For some reason I've called important habits a lot of different things over the years. (Maybe I should just call them "Important Habits".)

  • Champion Habits - a term used in a April 2010 speech.
  • Keystone Habits - habits that, when changed, set off a chain reaction that extends to all aspects of a person’s life - from Duhigg (February 2013)
  • Bookend Habits - the start and end to my days (March 2013)
  • Golden and Silver Habits - honestly, why do I keep trying out new names? (June 2014) 201406289999
  • Micro Habits - tiny questions we ask ourselves throughout the day that shape big results (circa 2014-2015)
  • Power Habits - December 2016
  • Resiliency Routines - habits to rebuild or maintain a sense of control in one's life (May 2018)
  • Others I don't use but that exist
    • Atomic Habits - from James Clear (circa October 2019) At least I'm not alone with the affliction of trying to name really important habits.

Related: [[Power Actions]], but that's for another time. (Not included in the LYT Kit)

%%

Related

PD Lists: 201511121539]]
2018 Review: 201901250859
%%

Writing down daily goals in the morning is an important habit

id : 20220829180157
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Habits MOC
tags:: #on/habit #on/PD

Writing down daily goals in the morning is an important habit

This follows: Journaling in the morning is an important habit. After journaling, set some broad, simple daily goals.

Daily Goals are a continuation of the Morning Journal. Basically ask yourself: "What actions and tasks would make today feel like a worthwhile day? How much is realistic? In what order should I do them?"

Type or write them down. Keep track of them during the day. Adjust as needed. Writing down your daily goals combats those random attentional detours so you can stay on the main road.

If you write out your daily goals, you naturally visualize them and prioritize them in the mind, you have a touchstone with which to check your progress throughout the day. It adds security.

It also tracks easily forgotten "wins" to provide a small sense of accomplishment. See Small Wins foster a Sense of Control. There are many days when it feels like you got nothing done. By tracking your daily goals, you save yourself from that false feeling of "never enough" and internalize how much you actually did accomplish. It's a pleasant surprise and completely valid—the daily goals just keeps it in the proper perspective.

Conclusion
The Morning Journal and Daily Goals are the 1-2 punch to creating momentum and maintaining it throughout the day. The importance of this cannot be overstated.


  • Back Matter
    • dates:: 2014-06-28
    • created:: 2014-06-28
    • modified:: 2020-05-28

Wu wei

id : 20220506055539
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept

Wu wei

“The art of sailing, rather than the art of rowing.” - Alan Watts

Definition: a concept literally meaning “inexertion”, “inaction”, or “effortless action”. Alan Watts called wu wei “not forcing”.

This reminds me of Flow, the wonderful concept by Mihaly C.
It's similar to Flow in that action becomes effortless, but it's different in that...hmm, I see a venn diagram and there is much more overlapping than is not. I would say that Flow may inherently have more intention behind it, but the funny thing is that those intentions melt away once the state of Flow is achieved.

I've experienced Wu wei in my life when I've chosen not to immediately act on something. (ADD EXAMPLE LATER) In that way, it would seem there are some overlaps between Wu wei and Stoicism. EXPLORE LATER


Wu-wei is good because, if I were to view it through a Western lens, it has positive implications for stress management. Attempting to practice Wu-wei (as far as one can practice it without deliberately practicing it!), will help a person focus less on their "Circle of Concern" and more on their "Circle of Influence". Basically, practicing wu-wei can help us stop worrying about the things we can't control.


Wiki

Wu wei (Chinese: 無為; pinyin: wúwéi) is an ancient Chinese concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action". Wu wei emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and Taoism, and was most commonly used to refer to an ideal form of government, including the behavior of the emperor. Describing a state of unconflicting personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity and savoir-faire, it generally also more properly denotes a state of spirit or mind, and in Confucianism accords with conventional morality. Sinologist Jean François Billeter describes it as a "state of perfect knowledge of the reality of the situation, perfect efficaciousness and the realization of a perfect economy of energy", which in practice Edward Slingerland qualifies as a "set of ('transformed') dispositions (including physical bearing)... conforming with the normative order".

Wikipedia

Yin and Yang

id : 20220505010104
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Concepts MOC
tags:: #concept, #note/develop🍃

Yin and Yang

Wiki

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang is a concept of dualism in ancient Chinese philosophy, describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

The Seasons are related to Yin and Yang.

You are what you eat

id : 20220829230856
type : undefined
keywords :

up:: Feedback Loop
tags:: #concept, #note/develop🍃

You are what you eat

Growing up, I'd here this around the dinner table. Of course you don't become broccoli if you eat broccoli.

But you do become shaped by your food in life-altering ways. Everything from our health (obvious), to our disposition (less obvious), and to our gut biome, which likely affects our epigenetics.

You are what you eat is a more specific comment on one of the fundamental truisms underpinning almost everything:

![[It's circular but true, we become what we do#^f8ca0f]]

I'm really feeling the need to create a new map of content around something I always think about...so here we go: [[Our Tools Shape Us MOC]] (not included in the LYT Kit)

Related: Feedback Loop


You rest your weary feet by sitting on a nearby stump. As you do, you slow down, and suddenly, you catch a glimmer of something under rock and tree branch. It's an old, smashed scroll clasped in a gold-speckled ribbon. You open it.

Help

Click here to access Cosma's documentation

Shortcuts

Space Re-run the force-layout algorithm
S Move the cursor to Search
Alt + click (on a record type) Deselect other types
R Reset zoom
Alt + R Reset the display
C Zoom in on the selected node
F Switch to Focus mode
Escape Close the active record

Version 1.2.0 • License GPL-3.0-or-later

  • Arthur Perret
  • Guillaume Brioudes
  • Clément Borel
  • Olivier Le Deuff
  • ANR research programme HyperOtlet
D3 v4.13.0
Mike Bostock (BSD 3-Clause)
Nunjucks v3.2.3
James Long (BSD 2-Clause)
Js-yaml v4.1.0
Vitaly Puzrin (MIT License)
Js-yaml-front-matter v4.1.1
Derek Worthen (MIT License)
Markdown-it v12.3.0
Vitaly Puzrin, Alex Kocharin (MIT License)
Citeproc v2.4.62
Frank Bennett (CPAL, AGPL)
Fuse-js v6.4.6
Kiro Risk (Apache License 2.0)
1/9/2026